Fighting for Freedom
by NoxisZero
Summary: After winning a competition featured by CAT, Neku Sakuraba is drawn into the death game know as Sword Art Online. Faced with numerous obstacles, Neku must meet them head on, or die trying.
1. Let the Game Begin

Sword Art Online and The World Ends with You are not owned by me, but this is a work of my own creation. Please do not take any ideas without permission.

A quick notification, this story uses information from SAO Progressive for some of the initial chapters. This information is not seen in the anime or the manga. While it is not necessary to know what happens in SAO Progressive to understand the story, knowing what does will help you grasp the plot better.

-§-

Sword Art Online, SAO for short. The first MMORPG for the full drive system. The chatter about it and the upcoming beta test was everywhere. On the trains, on the internet, on the streets. It seemed like every other word out of people's mouths were something about the upcoming RPG.

Neku clicked his tongue in annoyance and turned up the volume on his music player as he heard yet another person gossip about SAO. He was tired about all the hype about the newest revolutionary game. When things got popular, people freaked out about it, making them even noisier and more annoying than before. A group of students nearby started to loudly clamor as another advertisement prompting people to sign up for the SAO beta aired. Neku scowled and turned up the volume yet again. It would be so nice if people would just shut up for more than two seconds at a time. Finally, the train he was riding got to the appropriate station and Neku got off as fast as possible. As he started his walk home his thoughts started to wander.

Personally, Neku was a bit interested in SAO, besides the obvious flaws. One flaw was that it was an MMORPG, meaning that if he were to play, he would need to, unfortunately, deal with other people. While it was possible to be a solo player, Neku really didn't find much appeal in role playing games to begin with. Another negative was that due to the full drive system, he would not have a convenient mute button to block out all the background noise that would constantly be there. No, none of this interested him. However, there was one major factor that perked his interest. Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO, had gotten the legendary CAT to work on the project with him. The company had created songs for BGM as well as made many artistic details to enhance the digital world to its fullest extent. Neku supposed that it was also to try to reach out to a wider demographic by including the famous artist in development.

Supporting Neku's theory was a currently ongoing contest. In one CD case of CAT's newly released album there would be a code to turn in to get a spot in the SAO beta test. While the CD contained some CAT music, there was some BGM from SAO included as well as one BGM composed by CAT. Neku internally scowled at this. Due to the inclusion of the potential SAO beta test spot, these disks had been snapped up much quicker than usual. It had taken himself a train transfer and a mile walk to finally find a copy, albeit the only one in some rundown shop.

Neku breathed out a sigh as he opened the door to his house. He called out a faint, "I'm home." before walking to his room and setting his purchase down on his desk. He slid off his backpack and dragged out his textbooks and notebooks before setting them on his desk to start on his homework. Before he could put pencil to paper however, his gaze fell on the plastic bag haphazardly thrown onto the desk. He shrugged, might as well listen to it while working, if it was too distracting he could always turn it off. He reached over and grabbed his purchase. After getting rid of the plastic covering, he popped open the CD cover only to be met with a piece of paper with a code on it. There were also instructions guiding to the official SAO website to plug in the code.

Neku shrugged as he turned on his computer, while there was almost no chance that he would get the copy, he might as well enter and if he did get it he could just sell it to the highest bidder. He navigated to the website and typed in the code as well as his address to enter the contest. He shrugged and turned back to his homework after starting his CD player. As he solved equation after equation for Algebra, he had to admit, the songs from SAO weren't half bad.

-§-

Around a month later, Neku opened the door to his room to curiously find a package on his desk. His mother must have brought it in for him. Walking forward he grasped it and after a few seconds he had the opened box in his hand. Inside found one copy of SAO. Neku's eyebrow's rose slightly, he certainly was not expecting this. He picked up the game and turned it around in his hands, only to spot something else was in the box, a small white envelope. Intrigued Neku picked it up and opened it.

Scrawled in a very distinct handwriting was the following: Congratulations for winning this special prize, but that is not all. On the first floor of Aincrad, at these specified coordinates, you can find a unique item made by CAT that any adoring CAT fan would want. This item however will not be implemented in the beta. We of CAT wish you the best of luck in your future SAO endeavors.

Signed at the bottom was the CAT logo as well as the phrase "enjoy every moment with all you've got."

Neku smirked, a rare item, designed by CAT that he would actually want? Sign him up. Neku looked down at the beta disk and shrugged, he might as well get some practice in before the real thing. He would need to get a Full Drive gear… but he had around a month before summer, and the beta, he had time to spare.

-§-

Neku dashed forward with an unnatural speed maneuvering his sword for a thrust, the wolf couldn't dodge in time and was thrown back. After the digital animal picked itself up, it howled and started to run toward Neku.

Neku smirked and raised his sword above his shoulder, causing it to start glowing in a bluish green. When the sword skill had charged he released it causing him to jump up and smash down on his opponent. The sonic leap sword skill left a red slash mark on the wolf causing it to freeze and finally shatter into blue shards that eventually dissipated. The rewards screen popped up telling him about the exp and col that he had gotten. Neku closed it and started to look for his next target.

Sword art online was much more enthralling than he had originally anticipated. The movement of his body, the reactions, the feel of vivid reality even though he was in a game. Currently he was just outside the Town of Beginnings on the first floor getting used to the motion activated system of Sword Skills. At first it had been a bit jarring, positioning yourself in a stance and letting the system take control from there. Now though, after a few days of trying it out, he was getting the hang of it. The first day he had gone out to the exact place that the letter had pointed to, but as expected, he found nothing there. Also as expected, as a level 1 in a level 4 area, he had suffered major damage when trying to backtrack out. He learned potions in this game had a heal over time effect rather than an instantly replenishing health all at once. Since then he decided that if he was going to play, he would play less recklessly.

A boar noticed him and rushed him. Smirking, Neku readied another stance, this time for the sword skill vertical. As the boar came into range, Neku swung down causing the boar to collapse into the ground. Neku waited as the post-motion delay wore off before initiating another sword skill, Horizontal, to finish the job. As the boar shattered into blue shards, A level up sound was heard above him causing him to smirk.

"That was incredibly wasteful," said a voice from behind.

Neku frowned, so far he hadn't needed to deal with others while playing. Sure, he had gotten the occasional party invite, but that had been ignored resolutely. Some over enthusiastic people had tried to talk to him in the city, but he had evaded them pretending that they were calling out to someone else and had slipped into the crowds. But here on the open plains, there was nothing to do but face the person.

Neku turned to find a boy with hair growing down to his neck. If he had to describe it, his face reminded him of the typical faces of fantasy protagonists that girls would swoon over.

"What are you talking about?" Neku asked as he sheathed his sword.

"That boar could have gone down with a few normal swings, you didn't need to use another sword skill to finish it off."

Neku crossed his arms, "Thanks for the tip, I guess, but did it ever occur to you that I was just trying out as many sword skills out as possible? I may just be new to the system and I am getting used to it."

The player raised an eyebrow, "Even still, using sword skills take concentration, if you use too many in such a short timeframe you may develop a headache, which is detrimental in battle."

Neku put on a thoughtful expression, he hadn't known that, considering he was a new. He scratched the back of his head, "I see… thanks"

The other swordsman waved it off, "No need to thank me, you looked like you were getting the hang of sword skills at a fairly decent rate, and I thought that you might have wanted some pointers. Though if I am honest that is only half the reason."

Neku raised an eyebrow in confusion, "Oh? And the other reason?"

The other swordsman placed his hand under his chin as if choosing his words carefully, "You're good, the way you utilize the system is very sharp, precise. Your awareness to things around you and your reaction time keep you out of danger and will help you get far in this game. Currently some other players are trying to fight this floor's boss, but they are having trouble, think you can give them a hand?"

Neku scoffed, "Sorry, although, I can get money and exp from defeating the boss, that small positive does not outweigh the fact that I don't like dealing with other people. I see no real incentive to join your little merry raid group."

The player across from him nodded sagely, "I know that feeling, so how about this? I know a quest that will help you get the strongest one-handed blade on this floor. I will help your through that quest, as well as give you pointers on playing SAO more effectively. In exchange, you help us with the floor boss."

Neku considered the pros and cons. It was not like he would need to join them for every boss fight, and he would get to learn more about SAO. There was no real disadvantage to taking up his offer. So Neku shrugged, "sure, you have yourself a deal."

The player held out his hand, "The name is Kirito, what is your name?"

Neku smirked held out his hand, "Neku."

Kirito opened his menu and sent Neku a party request which he promptly accepted.

Kirito smiled, "glad to have your help, Neku, though I should ask, what level are you?"

Neku frowned, "Level 4, why?"

Kirito smirked, "You'll see why."

-§-

Neku soon figured out why Kirito asked about his level. It was a difficult time trying to get the item needed to complete the quest, Little Nepenthes' Ovule. Both players hacked and slashed at the monster Little Nepenthes, defeating them by the hundreds to force them to respawn only to be cut down again. Kirito had informed him that the monster they needed, a special one with a flower on his head, had a less than 1 percent spawn rate. On the plus side, Kirito really knew his way around this game. Neku was introduced to the "switching" system as well as other techniques about fighting in parties. While Neku was not eager to learn, it was something that he had to learn eventually if he was going to participate in a raid. Kirito promised that he would teach him others things too, such as pot rotation and other gaming terms.

Eventually the monster finally spawned and was taken out. After Neku got the item they beat a hasty retreat back to the quest giver's house.

Neku was breathing heavily, while Kirito just stood by with crossed arms. This was another problem of VMMORPGs, no matter how fit you were in the real world, your stats in this one determined everything, from your stamina to your strength. Later in the game it was an advantage, but now in the beginning, it was only a massive pain. Neku looked up at him, "That was insane… you could have warned me that that I should have been at least level six for that."

Kirito shrugged, "Technically you could do it around level 3-4, it was only difficult at the rate we were hunting at. I killed more, forcing more to respawn in another location. But I will admit, you still had a large amount of HP left at the end of it."

Neku rolled his eyes, "I had a rather rough learning experience the first time I played, wandered too far out of the safety zone and took a huge amount of damage against monsters when I tried to return, and since I would rather not die, I have started to try to dodge attacks that I can."

Kirito tilted his head, "Trying not to die? This is only a game, even if you die you will respawn back at the Town of Beginnings."

Neku frowned, "Is there any negatives for dying like losing exp, col or items? I remembered those from other RPGs I have played, and I instinctively tried to no die."

Kirito laughed, "No punishments that I am aware of, except the fact of being teleported all the way back to the beginning towns on the first floor."

Neku gave a low hum of acceptance before continuing on, "Anyway, I should go complete this quest."

Kirito nodded, "Do you need my help or?"

Neku scowled, "I told you I learned my lesson."

Kirito laughed as Neku walked away silently remembering the slight confusion that had happened while accepting the quest. In SAO, it was required to speak to people directly with finality. You could not be vague with words like, "Sure, whatever," or even use odd sayings like "Whatever floats your boat." You needed to speak definitively, and only this would allow the NPCs to respond. Neku walked into the house and after a long conversation that honestly he could not care less about, he was finally given the Anneal Blade. Kirito waved as Neku exited the house, new blade already in its sheath along his back.

Kirito smiled, "it is getting late, do you want to meet tomorrow to upgrade your sword?"

Neku shrugged, "Sure, if you don't mind helping me harvesting the materials."

Kirito nodded, "I don't mind, the next attempt at the first floor boss in in two days anyway. Want to meet here around 8am?"

Neku nodded, "Sounds like a plan, though I might do a little hunting before I log out, I am almost at level five."

Kirito nodded, "alright well then see you later." He opened his menu and logged out with a wave.

Neku stretched above him before smirking, he had never thought he could get this sucked into an RPG. It was fun seeing things with your own eyes rather than a computer screen, as well as moving your own body instead of clicking on a mouse or a controller. Heck, even smelling the nature around him, albeit fake, was more exciting than just watching your character on screen move through some forested area. Neku shook his head to clear it of miscellaneous thoughts. He had a level to get before logging out.

-§-

And so Neku's beta experience continued. He crossed paths with Kirito a few more times after that, sometimes joining together on quests, sometimes meeting up to exchange information. The two became tentative allies on the battlefield. Kirito had enough respect of Neku's antisocial nature to not try to get him to open up, and only speak when necessary, not wasting time talking about pointless subjects.

The frontline players of the beta fought valiantly trying their best to get as high as possible, to learn as many secrets as possible to use when the main game came out. They had succeeded in getting to the tenth floor but they could not get to the dungeon in time to find out the main boss.

As messages streamed across the sky, telling people that they would be forcefully logged out in around 5 minutes, Neku sat in the tenth floor main city looking out to the horizon.

"What's up?" came the familiar voice behind him.

Neku glanced back before returning his gaze forward, "Kirito, what brings you here?"

Kirito shrugged, "Just want to spend as much time in this game until the official one comes out."

Neku raised an eyebrow, "whatever you say."

Kirito laughed, "So, you going to buy the official copy?"

Neku glanced at him, "are you?"

Kirito nodded, "Obviously, you can't get this experience from any other game."

Neku shrugged, "I guess, though you will be starting over from the beginning."

It was Kirito's turn to shrug, "While that may be a bit annoying, it is not that bad, but you never answered my question."

Neku gave a dry chuckle, "Yeah, in fact it is something that I cannot miss out on."

-§-

Around a month later, Neku watched a newsfeed about how fast the game was sold out. Online copies sold out in a day, while the store copies were snatched up by people waiting in outrageously long lines. It made Neku happy that he was able to pre-order his copy without much hassle. It would soon be the date to log into the long-awaited game of the century. While admittedly the beta had not been that bad, that had only contained one tenth of the players that was now going to be roaming around. The also might be a hassle of his obtaining of the hidden unique item that CAT had hidden within the game. He was sure that people would harass him for days if not weeks about how to obtain it. Neku supposed that he could log on, get the item, then log off immediately, he was not too worried about being left behind.

Neku sighed and turned back to doing his homework, it would not do for him to get distracted. While that should have been the case, he started to absently wonder about how different everything would be out of the beta. In such a large world, there had to be some number of bugs or glitches, though Neku never experienced any himself. He shrugged, there was much more beneficial stuff he could be doing rather that thinking about patches to a game that would come out soon.

-§-

When the servers finally started on November 6th, Neku hit the ground running. He burst out of the starting town and charged into the fields. Using his beta knowledge, he estimated that he could get to the unique item around level 2 as he would have enough HP to take a few accidental hits. He slaughtered boars at an astounding rate, drawing other attentions. Some called out to him, others sent him a party request, but he ignored all of them. When it became obvious that he would not respond, the other players eventually left, muttering under their breaths. As soon as the level up screen was shown to him, he dashed out towards the coordinates that he had long ago memorized. He killed the monsters nearby as he approached the forest where the item was hidden. As soon as he got to the place, he looked all around, trying to spot a chest, or any other indication that there was a hidden item lurking somewhere. His sharp eyes spotted a small moss covered chest at the base of a tree. Neku ran over to it and opened it in excitement. A screen came up informing him he had obtained the item "CAT Headphones."

Neku smirked and opened his equipment window and looked at it. The headphones did not look spectacular, but familiar. Being a CAT enthusiast, they were the CAT Headphones labelled simply as "My Phones." It was thought that these were the type that the head of CAT wore and had gained some popularity while it was on market. Neku could not see any other buff that he could get from it. Confused he equipped them. He felt them materialize on his head. Immediately, a window popped up prompting Neku to look at it. After looking at it for a bit Neku gave a small laugh. The headphones had one function. Instead of listening to the BGM of Aincrad, one could simply listen to CAT music instead. It was certainly an item that any CAT fan would love. To activate the headphones, one simply needed to tap the headphones on the side to open the window. Neku supposed that it would not hurt to play a bit more, people would not be as jealous of him if he explained that the headphones only changed the background music. He decided to listen to Twister for a bit, and after changing the music, he retreated out of the forest and started to farm monsters in an undisturbed corner of the fields. After some hours of fighting he decided that it was enough for the day, just as he was going to open his menu to log out, a voice called out to him.

"Oi Neku right?"

Only one person knew his character name, so he turned his head as he watched Kirito and an unknown player run up to him.

"Kirito, fancy meeting you here, I thought for sure that you would be in the next town already."

Kirito laughed and scratched the back of his head, "No… I was helping this guy get the hand of using Sword Skills."

The player grinned widely and held out his hand, "Nice to meet you then name is Klein!"

Neku rolled his eyes, "Yeah… sure… nice to meet you I guess."

Klein looked confused for a moment before dropping his hand, "Not the social type are we?"

Kirito waved his hands, "now, now, no need to get angry, that is just his style. He really is a great guy, just takes some time to get to know him is all."

Neku shook his head, "Moving on, what's up? I was just about to log out."

Kirito looked disappointed, "Oh sorry… I was wondering if you wanted to help out with the Anneal blade quest since Klein here was about to log out, but I guess I can do it tomorrow."

Neku thought for a second before nodding, "You know what? It will be better for me if I get it sooner than later, yeah, we can go get it."

Kirito pumped his fist in the air, "Nice, alright then, Klein, if that is everything…"

Klein shook his head, "Not so fast, what are those?" he said as he pointed to the headphones on top of Neku's head.

Kirito turned and looked at what Klein was pointing at, "I don't know, willing to explain Neku?"

Neku shrugged, "Sure why not? These are the unique item CAT headphones. The coordinates were given to the winner of the CD competition in collaboration with CAT. There are no effects except being able to listen to CAT music instead of normal BMG."

Klein looked disappointed, "That's all?"

Neku nodded, "yeah, CAT did promise something that CAT fans would enjoy, and I can say that I am not disappointed. Besides, do you think Akihiko Kayaba would willingly include a broken item for one person?"

Klein rubbed his chin, "I guess… well then it is time for me to head out." With a wave to Kirito and Neku, Klein turned around and opened his menu. Neku motioned for Kirito to follow him, and started to walk away when he heard a "Eh? Where is the logout button?"

Kirito looked back while Neku just sighed. The log out to was one of the easiest features to find, it was a simple concept.

Kirito was more helpful in that aspect, "It is at the bottom of the menu."

Klein scratched his head, "It is not there."

Neku groaned and opened his own menu to direct Klein, "It is under the settings option, at the very bot…tom."

His finger hovered over a black space. Every time in the beta it had been as easy as a snap to find it, hell, Neku had taken time to read the manual and it was supposed to be right there, but it was just gone. A bad feeling started to grow in his chest.

Klein sighed, "Guess it is just a bug."

Neku shook his head, "Can't help but wonder what happened though, I mean, I would think some people from Argus would have had to log in at some point to see how the game felt. You would think they would notice this kind of thing."

Kirito shrugged, "Well for now, just call a Gamemaster."

Klein pointed a blurred window in front of him, "What do you think I have been doing this entire time? Nobody is picking up."

Neku frowned, "And there is no way to get out either, unless someone pulls the Nerve gear off your head or they just shut down the servers."

Klein froze, "Seriously? There is no emergency escape?"

Kirito shook his head, "Nothing in the manual mentions anything like that."

Their conversation was cut off by the bells ringing from the Town of Beginnings. Neku looked over and suddenly was blinded by a white light. The next thing Neku knew, he was in the main square of the Town of Beginnings with Kirito and Klein by his side. Soon after Neku's bad feeling gave way to reality. They were trapped in here. The remaining players of SAO had to fight and conquer all 100 floors of Aincrad to escape. Neku looked to his side to see the new, or rather original, faces of Kirito and Klein. Klein looked like a middle aged worker instead of the 17 year old he had chosen to look like. Kirito looked like a younger teen. Neku looked at the mirror in his hand only to see his face from the real world reflected back at him. He scowled, he had played this stupid game for a single unique item, and now where had it led him? To a death game of massive proportions.

As players yelled, screamed, cried and despaired, Neku glanced at Kirtio, "Oi, come on! We need to get out here! There are only so many resources that can be harvested!"

Kirito looked at him, "But Klein!"

Neku grit his teeth, Kirito was too soft in this situation, only so many people could get resources in SAO, once they ran out, it that was it. If Kirito and himself got those resources, they would be able to survive, and eventually use them to clear the game. As beta testers, they could utilize any resource much more effectively than any of the new players. Yes, it would be cruel to just leave people here, but in this situation, the ends justified the means.

Fortunately, Klein came to his aid, "Kirito, Neku is right, I still got friends here that need my help, you to go on ahead and do what you need to. We are all trying to clear this game, and you two will be powerful assets to do so!"

Neku nodded to Klein while Kirito clenched his fist but nodded as well. The two then turned and ran from the central plaza, out into the fields. As it was nearing nighttime, the monsters got more ferocious and attacked more frequently. Two wolfs spotted them and charged, two glanced at each other nodded. Both of them charged up sword skills and when the wolfs were in range released them on their foes. Both wolfs howled in pain before shattering into blue shards. As Neku recovered from the post-motion lag, he caught a sight of the sun setting just over some nearby hills. He had always thought that the scenery was wonderful, something that he had never bothered to witness in the real world, but now, after learning that this was a death game, he only had one thought.

What a Terrible World.

-§-

Just a small note on names. Yes, I know in Japanese culture there are things called honorifics that one would attach at the end of one's name to denote respect and/or familiarity, but I will not be using them in this fiction. While I do know the proper usage (then again it is not a difficult concept) I base my decision on a solid reason. SAO is, for all intents and purposes, a game. A screen name is a name you call other players. While you are behind a screen, technically you are all equal in status, even if level and equipment will most likely be different. Yes, in the anime honorifics are still used as seen by Kibou to Diabel and Asuna to Kirito, but to make this fiction more concise, and flow better, I have decided to cut them.


	2. Forming Up

Sword Art Online and The World Ends with You are not owned by me, but this is a work of my own creation. Please do not take any ideas without permission.

-§-

If Kirito was honest, he would readily admit that he did not know Neku that well. While he did know Neku from the beta test, that contact been sporadic at best. Teaming up for a quest here or there. Talking strategies for floor bosses or just meeting up to take on said floor bosses. Though he was sure about one thing, Neku's philosophy on humanity. Other people, except for a select few in Neku's life were worthless. At best, people were nameless shadows, at worst background noise that would sometimes be heard above his music.

In his own words, "I don't get people, never have, never will, I have my values, so you can keep yours."

Neku had no qualms with leaving others behind. According to him, inexperienced players would only slow them down. If others were determined not to die, they could take care of themselves. Not that Kirito was any better. While he had shown some concern for Klein, afterword, the two had blazed through quests, leaving nothing in their wake. On their way to get the anneal blade, they had met a beta tester trying to get the sword as well. The three had agreed to try and get the swords together, but their third member tried to backstab them by triggering an effect that flooded the area with monsters. Their plan backfired however and they themselves were caught up in the horde. The two had ran away while the boy died.

Now a month in, 2000 players have been killed. Some by mobs, some by PKs, others by suicide. Half the remaining players are too scared to leave the Town of Beginnings. Grief, terror, and anguish are felt by the majority of the players. Kirito sighed as he swung down his sword, finishing off another monster. Currently, Kirito was exploring the first floor dungeon alone, trying to find the boss room. Neku was off doing other quests and confirming whether or not there were any useful rewards. They had asked Argo, SAO's most famous info broker, for help but even she had not completed them all. The sounds of a monster spawning in drew him out of his thoughts. For now, he had a boss room to find.

-§-

Neku unleashed another sword skill causing the monster he was fighting to finally burst into blue shards. He had been spending the entire morning hunting down monsters for a certain kill quest. Unfortunately, the monster's spawn rate was about half of the surrounding mobs so he had to constantly kill other monsters as he waited for the one he needed to kill to come back. He scratched his head in annoyance. The quest was taking more time than he expected, and there was also the real possibility of Kirito passing him in levels. He sighed as he started to trudge through the forest again, searching for another enemy to take down.

"Somebody! Help!"

Neku glanced up to see a spear user running away from an enraged mob. Neku rolled his eyes. He could care less about someone in trouble, however, the monster chasing the player happened to be the monster he was hunting. He ran forwards and charged up a sword skill. As the monster got in range he released it and slashed the unsuspecting beast in the back. The monster tumbled before shaking itself out of its stupor and refocusing on its new target. However, the monster was too slow as Neku was already charging at it with his sword glowing blue. With two quick slashes, the monster cried out and exploded into blue shards.

Neku smirked and sheathed his sword behind him. He could finally complete the quest and go to the dungeon. He swiped downward with his right hand and scrolled to the friend section. Selecting Kirito's name he started typing out a message before he was interrupted.

"Umm… Thank you for saving me."

Neku frowned, he had forgotten about the other player, or rather than forgetting, never considered them in the first place. He supposed he could just ignore them, it had worked before and Neku would not hesitate to try again. He continued to type detailing that he had finished the quest and would join Kirito in the dungeon as soon as he was able. He clicked the send button and started to walk away.

"Umm… Please hold on!"

Neku scowled, clearly this person was not getting his not so subtle hints that he did not want to talk.

"Can you hear me through your headphones?"

Neku wanted to introduce his face to his palm at this moment. What kind of player actually thought that there was an item to dampen sound, in a VMMORPG?

He turned around to observe the other player. From the voice he could already tell it was a girl. This girl had short black hair and was clutching her spear tightly to her body. Clearly she was an inexperienced player, so why was she way out here?

Neku sighed, "Did you need something?"

The girl seemed a bit flustered by his tone, gave a shy smile, "Umm yes… thank you for saving me back there... I would have-"

Neku scoffed, cutting her off mid-sentence, "I didn't do it to save you, I did it to kill the monster and complete the quest I was working on."

The girl shrunk back from his harsh words, "O…Oh… umm, sorry."

Neku rolled his eyes, "Next time pay attention to what you are doing, you won't be so lucky next time." Neku turned and started to walk away but was stopped once again.

"Umm! Please wait!"

Neku groaned and whirled back around to give the girl a withering glare, "What do you want?"

The girl flinched and took a step back before stuttering out, "If….If it is not too much trouble, could you escort me back to town?"

Neku barked out a laugh, "Why would I want to do that? Don't you have any friends?"

The girl nodded, "Yeah… I have a friend."

Neku rolled his eyes, "Then ask them to come out here instead and save your hide."

The girl shook her head rapidly, "But she is too weak to come out here. Besides you're right here so-"

Neku cut her off, "I already told you that I am not interested, and I am certainly not going to be getting anything worthwhile from doing so right? So, if you would excuse me, I will take my leave."

The girl clenched her spear tightly, "How could you honestly say that?! I could die out here!"

Neku shrugged, "I don't see how that is my problem, you were the one who decided to come out here when you were under leveled. Maybe in your next life you won't make the same mistake."

With that and a wave goodbye, Neku took off on a leisurely stroll through the forest. He expected to arrive in town after around ten minutes. Also as expected, the girl was trying to follow him stealthily. Trying, but failing.

Neku sighed before turning around and saying, "Oi, Stalker, if you are really insistent on getting back safely, you could always offer me some col."

The girl frowned "I don't have anything like that… all I have are just items for a quest and my armor and weapons, I used all my money on housing and food.

Neku rubbed his eyes in frustration, "I am truly surprised you lived this long. Tell me stalker, what quest were you doing in hopes of earning col?"

The girl puffed her cheeks out in annoyance, "The name is Shiki! And I was the doing the 'collect the herbs' quest."

Neku rolled his eyes, "One: I did not ask for your name, Stalker, and Two: hate to break it to you, but that quest gives you potions and experience, no col whatsoever."

Shiki froze, "EH!? But can't I sell the potions or something?"

Neku snorted, "Sure you can, for around 25% the price."

Shiki slowly sunk to the ground clearly drained of energy, "What was I doing all of this for then?"

Neku scoffed, "don't ask me missy, I don't have all the answers."

With that, Neku turned back and took a step to walk away.

"hic…"

Neku glanced back and saw the girl fall into tears. Her spear lay on the grass beside her as she held her body as it racked with sobs. It seemed the stress and anxiety of the situation had finally broken the camel's back. The girl just could not take it anymore and let out all her frustrations and her grief through her tears.

Neku sighed. When his best friend had died a few years back, he swore to make sure nobody would hold him back ever again. He was more than willing to leave people as they floundered around, confused. He was willing to leave someone who had betrayed them and let them die due to their own foolishness. If this girl died, it would be one less person to annoy him with useless chatter, one less person to try and get him to open up, one less person to take up space and get in his way.

But at the end of the day, Neku was human. If he allowed this small fragile girl to die while knowing he could prevent it, it would haunt him for the rest of his life.

So, with a sigh he turned back, knelt down and grabbed her spear, "hey stalker."

The girl flinched causing Neku to roll his eyes before continuing, "I am going to help you get back to town, you won't own me anything, on the condition that you do EXACTLY what I tell you, agreed?"

The girl looked up at him with teary eyes, filled with hope, "*sniffle* really?"

Neku narrowed his eyes in annoyance, "Or if you want I can and will leave you here."

The girl shook her head rapidly, "No, No! I understand."

Neku nodded, "Fine, then stand up, we are moving."

Neku held out the spear to the girl who gratefully took it before standing up and timidly following after him. Neku reopened his menu and shot the girl, Shiki, a party request before sending Kirito a quick message saying that there had been a change of plans that would hold him up for some time.

"Umm," the girl nervously started, "What's your name?"

Neku glanced back at her for a second before turning his attention back to their surroundings, scanning for possible hostiles, "You should be able to see my name from the health bars in your peripheries, though to make it easy on you, my name is Neku."

The girl continued, "Oh… nice to meet you Neku, umm… thank you again for helping me."

Neku scoffed, "Don't make me regret it… besides I am not going to just lead you to the town."

The footsteps behind him abruptly stopped prompting Neku to turn around. Shiki had her arms crossed defensively across her chest with a blush adorning her face.

The headphone wearing boy let out an aggravated sigh, "get your mind out of the gutter, I am going to teach you how to fight."

The girl slowly lowered her arms, "fight?"

Neku nodded, "you were having money problems right? Fighting monsters in the field is the easiest thing anyone can do to make some money. It won't get you rich, but it will certainly make you enough for all your day to day needs."

" _Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and you will feed him for a lifetime."_

Shiki seemed to brighten at this, before shrinking back, "I would have done that already if I could have… but I'm too scared, with monsters charging at me, and the fear of death… I…I just can't."

Neku sighed, "So your solution is to stay within the towns slowly rotting away hoping that something will be done? To me, that is a fate worse than death."

Shiki frowned, "Then how do you cope?"

Neku thought for a second before responding, "While I am always prepared, with health potions and I try to keep a large safety margin, I guess the main thing I do is feel confident is all my actions. If I have doubts, I have already lost."

Shiki put a finger to her chin, "Well, that might work for you but-"

Neku cut her off, "Heads up, we have company."

A wolf appeared before them, and as soon as it spotted them, it charged. While Shiki screamed in fear, Neku took a more proactive solution. He charged a sword skill and as soon as the wolf was in range, he released it and struck the wolf, unbalancing it. The wolf stumbled back allowing Neku to recover from his post motion delay. The orange haired boy charged forward and scored two slashes on his foe before he jumped back to avoid being bitten.

"Stalker!"

The girl frowned, "The name is Shiki!"

"When I shout switch, charge forward as fast as you can and stab the monster with your spear."

"Wha… What! That is crazy, there is no way that I could."

"You agreed to do everything I said! Get ready!"

The boy continued his battle against the monster, whittling down its health little by little, until it was near death. The wolf howled and jumped up to try a jump bite.

Neku smirked, before catching the wolf's mouth with his blade. With his strength, he flung the wolf back while shouting, "Switch!"

Shiki charged forward and thrust forward with her spear. If Neku was honest, he had doubts that this girl could actually hit a broad side of a barn with her spear, let alone a wolf. He had assumed that she had only the spear as a statement and nothing more. Regardless of Neku's assumptions, Shiki hit the wolf spot on and the monster gave a howl before bursting into data. Windows opened up in front of them detailing all the exp and col they had earned.

Neku's eyes flashed over it before hitting the 'X' button to close it. Shiki however was looking at it astounded. She looked at the window in astonishment.

"I… I did it… yeah! I defeated a monster!"

Neku rolled his eyes, "Sure, if getting the last strike counts as 'defeating' but sure, whatever you say."

Shiki deflated at his words, "Sorry, it is just… I never really had the confidence to fight before."

Neku sighed, "Even if you killed one monster, that doesn't make you an expert, it certainly is a step in the right direction for surviving this game. Tell me, do you know how to use sword skills?"

Shiki gave a sheepish smile, "I have heard of them…"

Neku closed his eyes and let out a long sigh, "Figures… alright, I know some basics about spears… and the initial sword skills of them as well, speaking of which, why did you choose to use spears in the first place?"

Shiki kicked the ground absentmindedly, "I thought that with a longer weapon, I would have some space between me and the monsters… and I would be safer like that."

Neku sighed, "A spear only helps you stay safe in a group of people, as someone is the vanguard while you play support, don't expect to be safe on a one on one fight, though you said you had a friend right? What do they use?"

Shiki fidgeted with her spear, "she uses a one hand sword."

Neku nodded, "Well, that is good, if you can get her to fight, you two should be fine. First, though, is sword skills. The first move you should be able to do is twin thrust."

Neku sheathed his sword and took Shiki's spear before taking a stance, "This is the approximate positioning you should have to activate the skill. Now give it a try."

Neku handed back the spear and Shiki positioned herself like Neku.

Neku shook his head, "You're too rigid, widen your stance a bit, also don't have your arms at a ninety-degree angle."

Shiki did as she was told, "Umm nothing is happening…"

Neku scoffed, "That is because you are not concentrating. Concentrate on a target, like that tree."

Shiki nodded at Neku before focusing on the tree before her. After a few moments Shiki sighed, "I don't think this is working."

Neku rolled his eyes, "The effect is not instantaneous, and people don't always pick up on it right away. Now back to concentrating."

Shiki breathed in and focused on the tree again. Neku stayed silent, he would not always be around to help her so there was no point in prompting her now, it would be up to her willpower alone. Shiki squinted at the tree, focusing all her might on her 'enemy.' Soon enough the tip of her spear glowed a brilliant green.

Neku smirked, "Now, strike!"

Shiki's eyes widened and she screamed, the system took over and she struck the tree twice causing it to fracture and then fall entirely, before bursting into blue shards, leaving behind some wood crafting material. Shiki was left panting but a smile adorned her face.

Neku nodded, "Well done, but that is the simplest of all the spear skills."

Shiki turned to look at him, "Does…*pant*… Does it always take that much concentration to do a sword skill?"

Neku shrugged, "Yes? No? Maybe? All I know is that it gets easier as you do it over and over. Now come on, I need to meet someone in the dungeon and I am already running late."

Shiki started, "Ah, sorry to delay you."

Neku rolled his eyes, "Whatever, we can kill anything on the way back to get you some money."

Shiki smiled, "Thank you."

Neku just huffed and turned away to start walking. The two took a leisurely pace back to town, killing anything that got in the way, even netting Shiki a level. Finally, they passed into the gates of the town and a window popped up informing them that they hand entered a safe zone.

"Guess my escort ends here," said Neku as he dissolved the party, "If fighting is not your thing, you could always try a craft instead, like sewing."

It seems that his choice in words had sparked something in her, because her eyes lit up and she grasped his hands, "There is a sewing skill?!"

Neku forcefully ripped his hands away, "Never do that again."

Shiki blushed harshly, "I'm so sorry! I was just so excited that there was a sewing skill that I lost control over myself."

Neku could not fathom why the mere act of sewing would get someone so excited but shrugged, "As for your question, yes there is a sewing skill, but it is in conjunction with the tailoring skill. It is nothing like real life mind you, it is oversimplified, but there are some similarities."

Shiki's eyes sparked, "I could sew all I want without having to fight at all… it is like a dream come true…"

Neku clicked his tongue in annoyance, "Not even close, you need materials to tailor, like leather, thread, needles, and scissors. Those aren't provided infinitely. Either you will need to hunt it yourself or buy it from others, and if you want to buy it, you need money. Plus you still would need a place of operations to do all your work, whether it is an inn or your own house, plus you need to eat. All that money needs to come from somewhere, and you will not be getting that from other players… right now people are either too scared to do anything or too focused clearing this floor."

Shiki deflated, "So that means I still need to hunt?"

Neku nodded, "For now at least, but if you do get famous, and you can produce quality items, you can eventually say goodbye to fighting."

Shiki sighed wistfully, "Well… I will look forward to that day."

Neku shrugged, "Whatever floats your boat."

Shiki giggled, "Well then, thank you again Neku, for not only saving me, but for teaching me how to fight as well guiding me back to town."

Neku rolled his eyes, but before he could respond another female spotted the pair and started to sprint at them.

The girl collided with Shiki with a scream of joy, "You're OK!"

The two girls fell to the floor in a heap. The girl then grabbed Shiki by the shoulders and shook her, "Don't you ever worry me like that again! You could have been killed out there!"

Shiki, a bit disoriented from the blow could only beg, "Eri! I am fine so please stop shaking me!"

The red-haired girl huffed and stood up and offered a hand to the girl on the ground who gladly took it. Shiki brushed herself off and motioned to Neku, "Neku here saved me from a monster, even took time to show me how to fight. I owe him a lot."

Eri, who just seemed to realize that there was someone else in the vicinity gave Neku a once over before smiling coyly, "Oh… Shiki I didn't know you had it in you, but you certainly caught a looker."

Neku glared harshly at her while Shiki shook her hands vigorously stuttering denials. Eri broke into laughter, "I'm kidding, I'm kidding, that is what you get for worrying me so much."

She turned fully to Neku and gave a sincere smile, "Neku was it? Thank you for recusing my best friend, I really would not know what I would do if I lost her."

Neku's eyes widened fractionally before returning to his usual indifferent expression. He was not used to being thanked. He shrugged, "It wasn't much."

Eri nodded before the two started walking away, Shiki excitingly talking about the tailoring skill Neku had mentioned before.

"So what was that about Nekky?"

Neku turned to find Argo standing behind him with a mischievous smile on her lips.

Neku scowled, "I told you not to call me that."

Argo smiled playfully, "Aww, but Nekky is so much better than plain, old 'Neku,' my nickname is one of a kind, completely terrific, and rolls off the tongue."

Neku grit his teeth. In his humble opinion it had always been a pain to deal with Argo the Rat, top info broker of SAO. She would sell or buy anything to make a profit, except the identity of the former beta testers.

Neku sighed, "That was just a girl I helped get out of the forest. She was going to die so I brought her back. The other one was the girl's friend, and she was thanking me."

Argo rubbed her chin before cracking a cheeky grin, "Oh, I don't think so, I saw her clasp your hands excitedly. Could you two have had a 'boy meets girl' moment out there?"

Argo turned and struck a dramatic pose, "A girl stranded out in the wilderness, her life about to come to an abrupt end, then suddenly!" Argo swept her arm out and pointed at Neku who looked ready to rip her head off, "a prince appeared, saving her from the monster and cradling her in his strong arms." Argo spun yet again clutching herself tightly, "After he escorts her back to the safe zone, she expects a new chapter in her life, but alas! He must leave her for another adventure, she clasps his hands, begging him not to leave her, but he cannot listen to her pleas, before he leaves, he whispers sweet nothings in her- hey, wait up!"

At this point Neku had started walking away from Argo, tired of the garbage spewing from her lips. Argo ran after the headphone wearing boy and after catching up shot him a dirty look as Neku looked at her with indifference.

After a minute or two of Argo panting, Neku spoke, "So? What do you need?

Argo huffed and crossed her arms, "I had an important message to tell you, but since you were so rude, I am going to make you apologize for it."

Neku shrugged, "clearly the message was not that important if you had time to spew romantic garbage at me. So if you will excuse me…"

Argo deflated, "You know, you could learn to lighten up."

Neku scoffed, "get used to disappointment. Now the message if you will."

Argo straightened up and nodded, "the final floor of the first floor dungeon had been reach. There is a boss raid meeting today in this town's amphitheater at four in the afternoon."

Neku's eyebrows raised, "Raid meeting eh? Kirito didn't contact me so it couldn't have been him, who finally got to it?"

Argo got a sparkle in her eye, "I can tell you for 50 col."

Neku rolled his eyes, "I guess I will find out later today."

Argo sniggered, "I wonder if you will ever buy any information from me."

Neku snorted, "Eventually I will, but right now I am content with what I have."

Argo smiled, "I await that day with bated breath, until then." With a wave, Argo dashed off. Neku sighed, he still needed to go and meet up with Kirito, if only to level up once before the meeting.

An alert prompted him to open his menu and select the messaging section. Kirito had informed him that he had exited the dungeon earlier than expected because he dragged a girl out from the depths. Neku raised an eyebrow at such a strange coincidence, but otherwise paid it no mind. He then headed off towards some stalls to get something to eat, and then wait till four.

-§-

A total of fourty-seven people were at the meeting. Neku silently sat as people chatted around him. Kirito had come a few minutes earlier and had brought along the girl he had found in the dungeons. Neku nodded at her, acknowledging her existence and nothing more, who nodded back with the same amount of apathy. The meeting started up with a man named Diavel taking the stage. He explained that his team had gotten to the final floor, so it was certain that they would find the boss room tomorrow, if not later today. He went on to say that it was up to all of them, the players right here to be the ones to show the rest of the players that the death game of SAO could be defeated.

" _At least he has a lot of charisma, that is for sure,"_ thought Neku as the people around him cheered.

"Hold on a second! Before we all play buddy-buddy, I need to say something!" Attention turned to a spiky haired man who was crossing his arms angrily.

Diavel smiled, "Do you want to share your opinion? I am all ears, but to do so how about you come down here and introduce yourself."

The man huffed before jumping down to the center and turning around, "The name is Kibou, and I know at least 5 to 10 of you must be in here right now! They all left us in the beginning and horded all of the good hunting spots and high paying quests! Because of them, there are two thousand people dead!"

Diavel spoke up, "By them… do you mean the beta testers?"

Kibou scowled, as if the mere mention of the name made him sick to his stomach, "Course I do! Those rotten bastards screwed us over as soon as this forsaken monstrosity became a game of death! I want all you beta testers to come down here and grovel at all our feet apologizing to all the dead players! Give us your stockpile of items and col too! Only then will I trust any of you!"

Neku frowned and stayed silent. While it was true that he had not gone out of his way to help anyone in the beginning, it was their fault for being so unprepared. This was a death game, you had to be cautious, alert. Fail to do those simple things and you were toast. That was not something that had to be taught, it was basic survival, plain and simple. As for the people that suffered mental breakdowns, there was not much he could have done anyway. If they had been so deprived of hope that they were willing to throw themselves off the side of the world, then teaching them how to swing a sword to survive would not have helped them. Some people would claim that Neku was rationalizing, but to Neku, it was just fact, and while that may have been harsh, it was not something that Neku would go out of his way to change.

"Hold on just a second yo!"

The mass of people turned to look at someone who had stood up. He had blond hair underneath a black bandana and looked like a thug, "Yose just blamin' them beta testers for the death of all those people? They are the ones that have helped people the most!"

Kibou scowled at the new speaker, "Who the hell are you? You a beta tester?"

The boy smirked, "Naw, but I am as good as one yo! I can use all my sword steels perfectly!"

Kibou frowned in confusion… "Sword… Steels?"

The person next to the blond haired boy stood up, it looked like a small boy with blond hair as well, but by the voice it was definitely a girl, "Sword SKILLS Beat, Skills."

The boy, now identified as Beat smiled and gave a thumbs up to the girl next to him, "Ah yeah, thanks Rhyme."

Kibou recovered from his earlier confusion, "So… So what? Just because you know sword skills doesn't mean that they didn't abandon us!"

Beat laughed, "Take a look at this yo!" He opened his menu and materialized an item. It was the all too familiar Argo the Rat guidebook. Beat continued, "This book is what taught me all I needed to know when I didn't know my right from my west!"

Rhyme smiled, "Right from left Beat, right from left."

Beat smiled, "Yeah! You tell'em Rhyme!"

A large man on one of the lower benches started to laugh before standing, "You know kid, you're alright, mind if I take it from here?"

Beat looked shocked, "Bwaaah! Yose out to steal my lightning?!"

"Thunder, Beat."

The man shook his head, "just dumbing it down so these people can understand."

Beat smirked, "Then their all yours, I can't make it any more stupid."

The man, named Agil, took the stage and clued everyone in on what Beat was trying to say, how the guidebooks must have been made by the beta testers. They had given the information willingly to all who would listen, but people had still died because they had chosen not to heed caution. With that the meeting go back in order.

Diavel nodded, "Alright! Now everyone, please form up into parties! We will be challenging the boss in a raid."

Neku sighed before turning to Kirito, "Well if assuming our current party is us two and her, we will be getting two random people on our team."

Kirito shrugged, "I don't think it will be that bad."

Neku shrugged, "I guess you're right, as long as it isn't that one blond guy we should be alright."

Kirito shook his head, "We need all the people we can get, if they come asking, we should accept them."

Neku scoffed, "Yeah, and what are the chances of that hap-"

"Umm excuse me."

The three turned around to find the loudmouth blond boy and the small blond girl standing behind them. The girl smiled, "You guys wouldn't happen to have space in your party, would you?"

Neku glared at Kirito, silently telling him to send them away. Kirito smiled, "Yeah we have some space, so you guys can join us."

The loudmouth smiled and shouted, "HELL YEAH, THIS IS GOING TO BE TIGHT!"

Neku slowly put his face in his hands thinking, " _Kill me now..."_


	3. Boss Fight

Sword Art Online and The World Ends with You are not owned by me, but this is a work of my own creation. Please do not take any ideas without permission.

§

Neku grit his teeth as once again, as Beat slammed into Kirito when he was attempting to perform a "Switch" maneuver.

" _And this is why I didn't want this guy on our team,"_ thought Neku as he watched Rhyme run over to check if the two were ok.

"Man…this switching thing is hard yo…" muttered Beat as he stood up while rubbing his head.

Rhyme smiled at him, "I think you're getting the hang of it Beat. You know what they say, 'Practice makes perfect!'"

Neku rolled his eyes, _"Perfect? Wonder how many years it will take before he is 'good' at it."_

The cloaked girl next to him clearly held the same opinion of him since she let out a sigh of frustration at the last pathetic attempt.

The five players, Neku, Kirito, the sibling pair Beat and Rhyme, and the cloaked girl, who introduced herself as Asuna, had formed a party after the town meeting at 4pm. As Kirito had gone over the possible formations, the terms 'switching' and 'pot rotation' had inevitably come up. This had confused Beat and Rhyme, and surprisingly enough, Asuna. The five finally agreed to go out into the field to do a small training exercise to get the feeling of switching down. As the experienced ones, it had fallen on Kirito and Neku to guide them through the training. Asuna and Rhyme had picked it up fairly well, in Rhyme's case, it had been what Beat and she had been doing all the time, Beat always was in the forward position and Rhyme had always run in whenever the monster had been stunned.

Beat however, needed some time to master the technique. Neku supposed however he could cut Beat some slack. Out of the entire group, he was the only one to wield a two-handed weapon, and it was an axe at that. The weight made it hard to get into position for a switch and the actual execution with such a heavy weapon made it all the more difficult. Asuna herself favored the rapier while Rhyme had made the knife her choice of weapon.

Kirito and Rhyme were about to make another attempt at switching. Just then, bells could be heard going off in town, indicating that it was 7pm. Neku and Kirito looked at the distant town before nodding at each other and turning back to the group.

Kirito sheathed his sword, "Let's call it here for the day."

Beat looked shocked, "Wait, you're giving up on me jus' like that?"

Neku let out a long sigh, "No, we are going back to town to rest for tomorrow. We can get more practice then. The boss still needs to be scouted after all."

Beat nodded, "Ah, gotcha Phones."

Neku narrowed his eyes, "The name is Neku, not 'Phones.'"

Beat waved off his comment as if it was nothing, "Naw man, you the only one that I've seen wearing those phones, thus you can be 'Phones'."

Neku scoffed, "that so? So it would be ok if I called you 'bandana'?"

Beat laughed, "were you even listening yo? There are more people than jus' me that wear a bandana!"

Neku rubbed his eyes in frustration, "That is not the point… you can't just call someone a name based on their equipment."

Beat looked at Neku before nodding, "Ah yeah, I see what yose saying now, I will be more careful from now on Phones."

Neku threw up his arms in defeat, "I tried, I'm heading back."

With that, the orange haired boy turned and started back towards town, followed by the four other party members.

After arriving in town the two siblings waved goodbye before heading off to their inn, Leaving Kirito, Asuna, and Neku to talk.

"We'll see you later Kirito," said Neku as he gave a wave, "Asuna, if you want, I can show you the inn I am staying at, can't say that it is of the best quality, but it has to be better than a dungeon floor, if what I heard from Kirito is correct."

The girl scuffed her shoe on the sidewalk in embarrassment, but still managed to ask, "You two are not staying in the same place?"

Neku snorted, "We would be, but this guy," Neku took a moment to jerk his thumb at a sheepishly smiling Kirito, "wanted to have his very own place."

Kirito smiled, "Aww, do I detect jealousy?"

Neku rolled his eyes, "Hardly, I don't need anything more than the bare essentials to survive, if you want to pamper yourself, that's on you."

Kirito laughed, "Admit it, my choice of residence is way better, it is spacious, has a great view, and all the milk I can drink."

Neku gave a huff of annoyance, "yeah, and I am sure that you use the bath every day."

In the very next moment Neku's collar was grabbed furiously by the almost forgotten girl that was still with them, "What did you say?!"

Neku's eyes widened, he had certainly not expected this from the taciturn girl. He could not think of anything that could have offended her so he repeated what he had said before, "Use the bath everyday?"

Asuna's eyes sparkled from underneath her hood. Promptly releasing Neku, she started to walk down the street, "take me to an inn that has a bath!"

Kirito scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "Umm, hate to break it to you… but there are no other inns around here that have baths."

Asuna turned around abruptly, "What?"

Neku sighed, "Kirito and I are not really people to look for amenities such as baths, if you scoured the first floor, I am sure you could find at least a few inns that provide baths, but Kirito and I know for a fact that there are no inns in this city specifically that have baths.

Asuna pointed and Kirito furiously, "But he just said he had a bath at the inn he is staying at."

Neku shook his head, "He is not staying at an inn, he is renting the second floor of a NPC farmer's house. It is a bit away from the town, but that is why it comes with those extra benefits."

Asuna huffed, "Fine, I'll just rent a room there too."

Kirito gave a sheepish smile, "Umm, when Neku said I was renting the second floor, he meant the entire second floor, there are no more rooms to rent…"

Asuna's eye twitched, "F…Fine then! I will just rent it after you!"

Kirito shook his head, "I rented it for 10 full days, the maximum limit, today is the 7th day of my rental, by the time I am done renting it, we will be on the second floor…"

Asuna slowly sank to the ground in apparent despair, "No… No way…"

Neku raised an eyebrow, "If you're so desperate, you could just ask to use the bath."

The glare that Asuna sent Neku told him that he should not have suggested that. Neku met her gaze unabashed, "hey, at least you have a choice, if it really matters to you, you have that option, if it didn't matter to you this much, we would not be standing here at 8pm arguing about bathing habits."

Asuna grimaced before turning to look at Kirito, "C... Could you please let me the use of your bath."

Kirito gave a smile, "Sure, but the door doesn't have a lock…"

-§-

Neku glared at Kirito as they both sat on the second floor of a NPC's house.

Neku crossed his arms, "you just had to tell her."

Kirito frowned, "what? She would have figured out that there was no lock anyway!"

Neku scowled, "Exactly! You could have waited until we got here and let her figure it out herself, instead we wasted 20 more minutes watching her antagonize if she wanted a bath or not because of the locking issue!"

Kirito smirked, "oh? You know you could have left, but here you are waiting for our temporary teammate to finish her bath, you wouldn't have any ulterior motives would you?"

The look of disgust that Neku sent to Kirito told him enough. It was not a look of, "I would never go so low as to peep on a defenseless girl," but rather, "You think I would waste my time trying to actively interact with another human being?"

Kirito lost his smirk and sighed before saying, "Either way, I am glad you came."

Neku raised an eyebrow, "What? You can't curb your own base desires?"

Kirito waved away his comment, "I am trying to have a serious conversation here."

Neku gave a huff of annoyance as he poured himself a glass of milk, "So sorry, I usually don't jump to serious conversations after accusing people of being a peeping tom."

Kirito frowned, "Come on Neku…"

Neku rolled his eyes and took a sip from his glass, "I was only joking, what did you want to talk about?"

Kirito sighed, "I'm worried about the boss…"

Neku put down his glass, showing that he was paying full attention, "The raid huh? You worried about our team or the raid group in general?"

Kirito shook his head before taking out the Argo the Rat Guide First Floor edition, "We both have seen the changes in the game so far, and the boss is the biggest place where the changes can be fatal… I just hope Diavel knows when to pull off a retreat when it is needed… I just don't want people to die."

Neku rolled his eyes in response, to which Kirito slammed on the table in rage, "Don't you dare roll your eyes at this Neku! You're not that much of a psychopath that you don't care about human life!"

Neku was ready to refute him instantly, but the memory of him helping a scared girl out of the fields earlier that day stopped him. Neku gave a long sigh, "Yeah… you're right, but let's be honest, there is not much we can do. We are only one team. Diavel is the raid leader, so whatever he says goes."

Kirito bowed his head, his dark hair falling over his eyes, "I know… but we can prevent people in our team dying at the very least. Especially Asuna… you didn't see her in the dungeons, but her attacks were incredible, she has so much potential."

Neku let out a low whistle, "Oh? It sounds like you think she will be as good as us someday."

Kirito let out a small laugh, "No, she is going to be better than us, easily."

Neku raised an eyebrow, "That is certainly high praise coming from you, if I didn't know any better I'd say you fell for her."

Kirito chucked, "Clearly not that far, but just wait till the raid, you'll see just how good she is.

Neku shrugged before picking up his glass to take another gulp of milk, "Alright… I'll look forward to it I guess…"

-§-

The next day Neku found himself coaching both Rhyme and Beat in some switching drills. This was an odd circumstance considering Neku did not want to be helping Rhyme and Beat at all. Unfortunately, the other members of his team, Asuna and Kirito, had gone out to get a rare drop. The rapier, Wind Fleuret. Argo had met up with the group shortly before and after some discussing, the group had agreed that Asuna had needed a better weapon. Neku was supposed to go and help Asuna while Kirito was to stay and coach the two siblings, but Neku had turned his back for two seconds and the three had scampered away.

"No, stop."

Beat stopped his charge towards the monster and Neku stepped in and stuck the monster, causing it to shatter into blue shards.

Beat was breathing heavily, "What… what was wrong that time yo?"

Neku scowled, "your charge was too late, you would have collided with Rhyme causing you both to fall down, putting you both in danger."

Beat huffed in annoyance, "Den we'd jus' get back up, problem solved!"

Neku shook his head, "Falling down here is not like falling down in real life. Every time you fall down, chance for tumble status is rolled."

Rhyme tilted her head to the side, "Tumble status?"

Neku nodded, "Tumble status gives the fallen player a stun debuff that lasts for a few seconds. Just colliding like that has a low probability for tumble, but in a boss battle, that low probability could be fatal."

Rhyme's face paled, while Beat just grimaced, "Then what do we do yo?"

Neku frowned, before closing his eyes and concentrating, "Beat, where are most of your stat points allocated to?"

Beat answered instantly, "Strength."

Neku nodded, "Second most stat?"

"Defense."

Neku nodded, it made sense for a tank, "Third most?"

Beat shook his head, "I don't got no third stat."

Neku sighed, he had found the problem, "So that is why you are having trouble switching…"

Beat looked up, interested, "Yose figure it out?"

Neku nodded, "Two-Handed Weapon users like yourself suffer from a decreased agility stat due to the weapons they carry. Since you loaded your strength stat, you can carry a much heavier weapon, but that has debilitated your speed. Normally, a player's natural AGI stat would not be affected too harshly, but this is the first floor, you haven't had a lot of time to raise your level and therefore your agility stat is lower than nominal. That is affecting your positioning and movement during your switch."

Beat nodded his head, "I getcha… so how do I fix it?"

Neku held out 4 fingers, "Beat considering your skill level, there are four options you have, one, if you have any extra skill points, you could add them to your AGI to balance your character a bit… but if you don't have more than five, then it wouldn't matter."

Beat shook his head, "Doesn't matter, I got no extra skill points."

Neku nodded, "Two, if you have another two-handed axe that is lighter, you could use that instead and your speed would not be as compromised."

Beat again shook his head, "Only two-handed axes I got are this one and some low tier scrap."

Neku sighed, "Figured as much… your third choice is just stay out of the raid, there is a high risk of losing your life in there, don't endanger yourself."

Beat pounded the ground in frustration, "Hell no! Imma gonna fight in there."

Neku rolled his eyes, "I thought you would say that, so here is the last option. You anticipate the switch and charge ahead, this extra timing would help you get into position for the strike. This is a very advanced move that is not for beginners.

Rhyme raised her hand, "Umm, then why are you suggesting it?"

Beat slapped Rhyme on the back, "Isn't it obvious yo? Neku thinks that I am an advanced player."

Nekus scoffed, "Hardly, you're as green as they come, no, if you tried this maneuver the probability you would fail is close to 100 percent."

Beat frowned, "That that idea is useless."

Neku rolled his eyes, "Not entirely, normally there is a lot of things that go into switching, such as the timing, monster attack patterns, etc, but you have been fighting with Rhyme for a long time, you know how she thinks as well as how she moves. It is certainly possible that you could switch with Rhyme without communication."

Beat looked excited, "is dat true?"

Neku frowned, "Not much we can do except test it. Rhyme, I am going to draw a monster here, then pass it off to you. Beat, you will need to try to anticipate the timing and prepare yourself."

The two nodded and the practice began. Neku spotted a wolf nearby and after drawing its attention, slowly made his way back towards the sibling pair.

The wolf jumped at Neku, prompting him to catch the monster with the flat of his blade. With a shout Neku threw the monster back a distance, "Switch!"

Rhyme ran forward and Neku slid out of the way, allowing Rhyme to perfectly intercept the monster. The two fought for a bit, small red marks appearing on both player and beast. After a while, the wolf charged at Rhyme, going for a claw attack. Rhyme's eyes seemed to flash as she charged up a sword skill. She released it directly at the wolf's claw causing both of them to rebound. As Rhyme fell back she called out, "Beat Switch!"

But there was no need, as soon as Beat saw Rhyme charging up her sword skill he started to move. When the wolf had recovered from the stun Beat was already in front of it with his axe glowing a brilliant color. Neku noted that it was one of the beginning skills, Whirlwind.

"Take This!" screamed Beat as his axe hit the wolf squarely in the chest. Neku's eyes widened as the wolf was lifted a good 6 feet and thrown past the tree line.

"Guess that's the kind of power you can get by putting most of your stats into strength," muttered Neku as he returned his sights to the blonde-haired boy.

Beat clenched his fist, "Hell yeah! That was tight!"

Rhyme had already ran up to him, congratulating him on his successful switch. Beat turned to the approaching Neku, "Yo Phones you see dat? Looks like I'm really one of dose advanced players."

Before Neku could crush Beat's triumphant nature, Rhyme took hold of the conversation, "Now, now, you only did it once… Remember Beat, 'Pride cometh before the fall."

"Nah Rhyme now dat I mastered this new move we ain't gonna fall no more, ya know?" Rhyme sighed and shook her head.

"I think, we need to practice a bit more and make sure you can do it consistently." She reiterated, dumbing it down for her older brother.

Neku nodded, "Rhyme's right, just because you got it once doesn't mean that you have mastered it, try it again, and remember, don't get overexcited."

The two nodded and Neku went off to try and find another monster. By the time Kirito, Asuna, and Argo returned, the group had gotten to the point where Neku no longer had to go out to retrieve monsters for the two to fight, instead, Rhyme or Beat would start the attacks and they would switch to practice.

Neku gave a nod to the trio as they walked up to them, "Get the rapier?"

Asuna looked smugly at him and turned so Neku could see the thin sword at her waist. Neku's eyes flicked to Kirito, "you upgrade it?"

"Of course, but the real success is these two," Kirito said as he motioned to the two blonde-haired players. The siblings had drawn in another monster and performed a beautiful switch causing the beast to shatter into blue shards.

Kirito smiled at Neku, "I knew you would think of something."

Neku rolled his eyes, but opted to stay silent. The silence was broken however when a beep resounded close by.

Neku looked up to find that every single person was looking at Argo. Opening her menu, she scrolled to the messaging screen and read out loud the newest edition, "Boss room found, Boss strategy meeting at 1 PM"

Neku breathed out and turned to talk to his temporary teammates, "I think we should call it here. We can head back to town and hear the meeting. We can strategize from there."

The group agreed and some hours later, they sat in the auditorium listening in on the boss room that had just been discovered. The boss was the same as before, Illfang the Kobold Lord. The initial scouting trial had revealed that sentinels would spawn at regular intervals. Unfortunately, that was as much info as they had.

Fortunately, someone had figured out that Argo the Rat's Guide First Floor Boss edition had been spread out through the stores, so a small recess was called so everyone in the raid group could pick up a copy. The book informed them of much more than the scouting party could, including estimated max HP, total health for the sentinels, as well as the boss changing pattern at low health. The members of the raid absorbed this information greedily and as soon as everyone was done, assignments were given. Eventually, Neku's group was assigned as Team G and was given the task of sentinel cleanup. The meeting ended with an offer to train together to improve synergy, but the five declined the offer, before going back out to the fields to train. The rest of the time till seven pm was used to practice switching techniques as well as discussing battle strategies against the sentinels. When the bells in town started to ring, the team agreed it was time to head back into town for dinner.

After a ten minute or so walk the five found themselves sitting in a small café. While Neku had been ok with eating black bread, the cheapest meal someone could buy from almost any stall, the small girl, Rhyme, had insisted on eating at the local establishment to bond a bit more. Naturally, Neku would have happily refused such an offer, but Beat and Kirito had agreed, and by majority vote, Neku had been forced to tag along.

Neku had to admit however, the food was not terrible. Nothing to write home about, but it was nice to change it up a bit. As Neku calmly ate the food on his plate, Beat was talking excitably to… well everyone. His voice was so loud that it was drawing the attention of people that were eating several tables away.

"Thanks again for teaching me all dat switching business you two!" said Beat with a huge smile on his face, "the boss tomorrow will be a cinch!"

Rhyme gave Beat a frown, "Let's not get too overconfident Beat, you are still facing a boss, it pays to be prepared.

Neku cut in, "Also, I would like to point out that we only have a party of five while everyone has a party of six. We are on sentinel cleanup. We don't get close to the boss."

Beat looked at Neku confused, "So what? We just need to clean up those senile things then we charge in afterword."

Kirito shook his head, "Sentinel cleanup. The boss constantly sends smaller enemies that attack the players. Neku is right, we can't 'finish up' the sentinels, since more of them will always spawn till the battle is done."

Beat did a double take, "Bwaaah?!" So you saying that I ain't gonna help much in this upcoming battle?"

Kirito shook his head, "It is not like you are not going to be helping at all, it is just we will not be attacking the boss… although that means."

Neku clicked his tongue, "we miss out on the LA."

Rhyme tilted her head to the side, "LA?"

Kirito nodded, "LA, stands for Last Attack, we are talking about the Last Attack Bonus that a player can get if they land the finishing strike on the boss. It is usually a special item that has pretty good stats or something with an excellent effect."

Beat slammed his fists on the table, "What?! They are hogging such a thing for themselves?"

Rhyme put up her hands in a placating matter, "Calm down Beat, if everyone in the raid group was self-centered, we wouldn't be able to take down the boss, we can take the sidelines this time, plus we are not the highest level right now."

Beat crossed his arms and gave a noncommittal grunt, "I guess, but that is whack you know? Anyway, I forgot to ask, what level are you guys anyway?"

Neku let out a long sigh, "You know nothing about gaming etiquette do you?"

Beat smirked and pounded his chest, "Hell yeah I don't, I know nothing bout etiquette, gaming or otherwise."

Neku rubbed his eyes in frustration, he should have known that trying to insult him would backfire.

"Anyway," Kirito broke in, "It is generally considered rude to ask people's levels and skills in VMMORPGs. It is the equivalent of asking a girl her three sizes out in the real world."

Beat snorted, "Please, girls sizes aren't that embarrassing, I can tell you Rhyme's right now."

Kirito flinched at Beat's straightforwardness while Neku rolled his eyes in indifference. Even Asuna seemed uncomfortable with the current topic

Meanwhile, Rhyme blushed furiously before stuttering, "B-Beat! How do you know that?!"

Beat smirked, "I've known for a while, anyway, let's see here, first…"

Rhyme jumped up and tried to cover her brother's mouth with her hand, but Beat blocked her feeble attempts with one arm.

Beat cleared his throat, "Rhyme's three sizes are… Medium, Medium, and 14.5 centimeters."

The group looked at Beat with confusion written all over their faces.

Beat smirked, "Come on, shirt size, pants size, and shoe size, the three sizes right?"

Kirito facepalmed while Neku just rolled his eyes. Rhyme sunk down to the floor in apparent relief.

"Pfft…"

Neku glanced over to where to small laugh had escaped from to see Asuna trying with all her might not to laugh out loud. Eventually she could not hold it anymore and started to laugh uproariously.

The group looked at her as her laugh faded slowly, eventually she managed to get control of herself. She wiped her eye and said, "I have no idea if you are really stupid or a really kind brother."

Beat gave a huff, "Dat's obvious yo, I'm a great brother."

The rest of the meal was passed enjoyably, or as enjoyable as it could be with a loud, rambunctious teen at the table. After dinner, the party split up and went their separate ways all focused on getting some rest for the battle tomorrow.

-§-

The next morning found 47 players outside the 1st floor boss room. Diavel called out to the waiting raid party, "Alright everyone, we are finally here. We have trained for this day, and we have gone over the strategies to win this fight, we have nothing to fear."

He looked around that the serious faces that surrounded him before smiling, "Alright, that is all from me, is there anything anyone wanted to ask?"

A solitary hand rose.

Diavel looked at the Kirito who wore a serious expression, "What is it?"

Kirito spoke, "As the leader of this operation, if you release the battle is going poorly, or if the information we have is incorrect, will you call a retreat?"

Diavel smiled, "I assure you, if we are in danger I will call for a retreat, human life is the top priority."

"Don't worry about him Daivel," Kibou spoke up in an arrogant tone, "If he and his party had actually trained with us instead of messing around, they would have known how excellent a leader you are."

Neku leveled a glare at Kibou and received some satisfaction when the older man flinched slightly and backed away.

Diavel clapped his hands together, "Alright, let's do this!"

The doors were opened, and the raid began. Players surged forward, taking their positions around the boss, or heading to take on the already spawning minions.

Beat clashed with one head on and after hitting it a few times he shoved it back and yelled, "Switch!"

Kirito rushed in with sword glowing blue, a two-part combo was unleashed onto the foe, depleting all of its HP, causing it to burst into pieces.

Neku also took one on with frightening ease. None of the attacks were coming close to hitting him. He raised his blade to block and overhead chop and after unbalancing his opponent called out, "Switch."

Asuna came in faster than even Kirito and with a single "linear" sword skill the monster became blue shards. Neku raised an eyebrow, he had doubted Kirito before, but after seeing her training and how well she was adapting, he was now understanding why Kirito was so adamant about her.

The battle raged on, the sentinels being taken down one by one. The boss' health bar was slowly reaching the last one. Motivation was at its peak.

"We got this yo!" called out Beat as he retreated after he switched with Rhyme.

Neku frowned, "Hopefully, but don't jump to conclusions just yet, the boss still has a good chunk of HP left."

Beat laughed, "Come on Phones, what's the worst that could happen?"

Neku scowled, "I told you not to-"

Neku's rebuttal was cut off when the Kobold boss' last HP bar became red and let out an ear-splitting howl. At this moment the boss would change to its talwar and utilize different attack patterns, but the attack patterns were much more linear than the bone axe and shield, so while there might be more damage, dodging and parrying were easier. The boss threw the weapons away and reached behind him for the weapon stored there. Also as planned, Team C, lead by Diavel, switched in, surrounding the boss and starting to whittle down his HP.

"NO STOP, GET AWAY!"

Kirito's scream brought Neku out of his revere, as Neku looked at Kirito in confusion, he saw something that he had never seen on Kirito's face before, panic. Neku whipped his head toward the boss again to discover that the boss was not holding a talwar of the scimitar class type, but a nodachi of the katana class type.

The boss' weapon burst into a menacing red as it initiated a sword skill, then it released it with a roar. A 360 degree attack against all that surrounded it, the katana sword skill, Tsumuji-gurama- Spiral Wheel. Instantly the members of team C were blown away. Their full health bars dropping to half. Kirito's eyes widened before he shouted, "Damn it!" and abandoned his post to help.

Neku glanced at his other party members, Beat, Rhyme, and Asuna all looked torn between helping Kirito and staying and keeping to their assigned task. Neku knew that no matter how great Kirito was, he would not get far alone.

"Beat! Rhyme! Do you think that you guys can handle this alone?"

The small girl nodded fiercely while her brother laughed, "Hell yeah we got this!"

Neku smirked, "Nice response," before turning to his last party member, "Asuna!" the girl turned to face Neku who was pointing at Kirito, "Let's go help him contain the situation!"

The girl gave a nod before racing after their wayward party member with Neku hot on her heels. It was too late however. Diavel had gotten up and already had released a sword skill. He charged forward and swung down. The boss however, dodged and then started to charge up a sword skill, Hiougi-Scarlet Fan, a three-part sword skill consisting of a slash up, slash down then a quick thrust. The sword burst into a bright scarlet color and the attack was released right on Diavel. The player was tossed into the air before the second swing came through slicing the airborne player before the thrust came in, tossing the player back quite a distance. There was no getting back up from that. Kirito dashed to the fallen raid leader, but before he could get out a potion, the player burst into shards.

The sound seemed to echo off the walls of the boss chamber. Everyone just stared blankly at the place the raid leader had once occupied. The boss' roar woke everyone up. Screams of panic and fear emanated from the players as the situation devolved into chaos. Since the raid leader had fallen, the party started to fall apart. Some were starting to abandon the fight by just turning tail and running. Others were just standing still in shock.

Neku scowled, "at this rate we'll die… Asuna!" The long-haired girl looked at Neku, "Kirito and I will hold off the boss for a while, get to Beat and Rhyme and help them retreat."

The girl started to turn before stopping, "no, I am part of Team G as well, I can help!"

Neku narrowed his eyes, but before he could voice his thoughts, Kirito spoke, "yeah, we are going to need as much help as we can get Neku, the faster we defeat the boss the faster everyone is safe."

Neku closed his eyes and breathed out a sigh before opening them, "Alright, Kirito and I will focus on cancelling out the boss' attacks, Asuna strike anytime you can."

Kirito and Asuna nodded before the three started to run at the boss. Neku bit his lip as he ran, stalling the boss was good and all, but there would still be problems if the entire raid could not regroup and focus, they were as good as done. The sentinels would eventually overtake them. It was then that the perfect opportunity arose. Either Asuna was tired of the cloak covering her eyes, or she was thinking the same things as Neku, but the girl grabbed her cloak and flung it off. The majestic beauty of her hair flowing as the three charged at the boss was mystifying. The frantic players quieted down as they watched their charge to the enemy. Kirito used this gap to shout out orders to the other players.

Everyone! Take ten steps back! The boss won't use the AOE strike if we don't surround it!"

The raid party followed his orders. Neku used this chance to add more to the Kirito's statement, "Team C fall back and recover, everyone else, the next wave of sentinels are spawning, form up!"

The players responded with an affirmative shout. The three players finally reached the boss and Neku took the first attack.

From there it became a dance, the boss would swing its sword, Neku or Kirito would identify and block it, and while the monster was recovering Asuna would dash in and use a sword skill to shave away its health.

Neku was breathing hard as he watched Kirito deflect another high-powered sword skill from the boss. It definitely did not help that the boss' strikes were heavy. Asuna dashed in and struck with a two part combo before retreating back to where next was standing.

Asuna smiled, "We've got this. With you two able to predict its movements, it is just a game of hit and run."

Neku shook his head, "That is quite an optimistic view, you do realize that if Kirito or I mess up, this entire operation falls apart."

Asuna nodded seriously, "I know, but the raid group has regrouped itself. We are in a pretty stable position, if we can just hold out we can-"

Neku never found out what the rapier user was going to say, because at that moment the boss charged up another move. As it was his turn again, he charged forward with Asuna trailing slightly behind. The boss was going to an obvious downward chop, blade glowing, so Neku took a stance, and his sword started to shine for the sword skill vertical. He had been naïve.

The boss changed its stance in a blink of an eye so that is was now it was a horizontal strike. Neku realized far too late that the skill had been Gengetsu- Phantom Moon. It was a katana sword skill that would randomly shift between an overhead strike or a horizontal slash even though it had the same start up animation. Neku was hit head on and he flew a good 30 meters back. His HP was in the yellow, he had taken around 30 percent of his total health.

"I got careless," Neku spat as he lifted a potion to his lips and let the vile liquid down his throat. Fortunately, Kirito had been able to intercept the next strike before it had hit Asuna and the two retreated when Agil had stepped forward.

"You ok? Asked Kirito as the ran up to him. Neku nodded before weakly getting up, using his sword as a makeshift cane.

"I'm ok… I would have liked my HP to be higher, but at least it is not at zero…"

Asuna gave him a half exasperated, half worried look, "that is not something you should be joking about."

Neku let out a dry laugh, "you're right… but either way I need some time to recover. You two should head off toward the boss."

Kirito shook his head and pointed toward the two other players in their party, "Those two have been fighting for a while alone, Beat can only take so many hits, we'll change out with them."

Neku nodded, "Alright, I will join you if I can."

The two nodded and sprinted off towards their other wayward members. Neku rested against a pillar waiting as his health bar filled up slowly. He watched as Asuna and Kirito took over for Beat and Rhyme with frightening efficiency. The two worked well together, well in a fight anyway. The other interactions between them could use some work. Perhaps it would break Kirito out of his gamer like tendencies.

The health of the boss was dropping steadily, it would be over soon. Unfortunately, a team battling the sentinels were steadily losing ground and they were inching slowly back towards the boss.

Kirito called out, "Team E, get away from the boss!"

The player however jumped back and got in range of the boss. As if the boss had planned it, it grinned furiously and crouched down. The blade glowed red and it spun around hitting each player currently surrounding it. There were cries of pain as the players were struck back.

Neku jumped up, "Those idiots!" He took off sprinting toward the boss. Kirito and Asuna were doing the same on his right.

The boss was raising its sword as the three arrived, Kirito cried out and jumped, while launching his sword skill, sonic leap. The green colored blade pulled him upwards and it struck Illfang's sword, cancelling the attack.

Neku's eyes flashed with determination, "Now Asuna! Your strongest sword skill!"

Asuna nodded and her sword glowed a light blue before flew forward, her shooting star sword skill hitting the boss squarely in the stomach. Neku's blade glowed a vibrant dark blue and he released his vertical arc on the boss, the two slashes causing deep red cuts to appear on its legs. However, the damage was not enough. The boss still clung to a sliver of health. Its eyes flashed and it swung down its sword at Neku, as if it knew that he was the one with the lowest HP.

"Not going to happen!"

Kirito charged in with his blade glowing a fierce red and stabbed through the monster. The large kobold froze for a second before letting out a roar. It fizzled before it burst into blue shards.

Large letters spelling out CONGRADULATIONS appeared above them everyone started to cheer. Neku walked over to Kirito with a smirk, "Congrats on the LA Bonus, If only I didn't use a Vertical Arc at the end. I could have recovered from my post-motion delay faster."

Kirito shook his head, "That was too much of a risk and you know it, I am just happy that this thing is over."

Asuna came over then and Neku watched as the two high-fived. She turned to Neku with her hand raised before realizing that he probably wouldn't indulge her. To her surprise however, Neku smiled and gave her a high-five.

"Nice job out there Asuna, we couldn't have done it without you."

Asuna looked shocked, "You can smile?"

Neku's scowl was back in a flash, "Ha Ha, you should be a comedian."

Asuna giggled, "I'm joking, I'm joking! Seriously, you need to lighten up sometimes."

Neku was about to answer, but his words were cut off by a certain loud mouth blond.

"Aw Man! That was hella tight!" Beat said as he approached grinning like a maniac.

Rhyme gave a more reserved greeting, "Congratulations on finishing the boss off you three."

Kirito and Asuna started talking adamantly with the two siblings when a sharp cry cut through the post victory celebration air.

"WHY DID HE HAVE TO DIE!"

Neku and Kirito looked up to see a member of team C on his knees, shaking though whether from anger or anguish was unknown.

The player slowly picked himself up and pointed at Kirtio and Neku, eyes blazing in fury, "You… You two… you knew didn't you, you knew the boss' skills, you knew how to counter it… if… If you had told Diavel he wouldn't have died!"

Slowly the other players voiced their opinions.

"How did you two know so much about the boss' skills?"

"Why was the strategy guide wrong?"

The unease of the players were slowly leaking out. A player suddenly shouted out, "I… I know the truth! The rat gave us fake information! She gave the real information to those two so they could get the last attack bonus, it was their plan!"

Kirito clenched his fist as the situation started to dissolve. They would never beat this game if nobody could trust each other. Kirito steeled himself, if he portrayed himself as the bad guy, he could shift their hate onto him. He would be doomed to play solo, but that suited him just fine. Kirito breathed in.

"Shut up, stop talking."

A voice cut through the tension like a hot knife through butter. Everyone stopped to look at who had spoken up. Neku slowly left his position and approached the player mourning over Diavel's death. The look he had on his face was one of pure disdain. It was if Neku had been asked to squash a centipede that was crawling on the floor and he was worried that it would stain his shoes. He stopped in front of the player.

"You're asking why Diavel died? You're asking why I kept my information hidden? Let me keep it simple for someone like you, I did it because it would have been a pain to tell you."

The man looked at him confused, "What?"

Neku clasped his head and shook it as if he was trying to get rid of a sudden a headache, "Pathetic, you can't even understand that? Then let me set the record straight. All of you are not worth my time. I will admit that most of the other beta testers were pathetic amateurs that couldn't level properly, you all are leagues ahead of them. As for that filthy rat, she can't even image the information I have. She can scavenge for as much snippets as she wants, she nor any other beta tester will ever outclass me."

Neku strolled towards Kirito, and when he was just within reach, Neku pointed his sword at his face, "You, I'll let you have the last attack this time, but remember your place, I'll get the next one."

With that Neku sheathed his sword and started to walk towards the next floor, "I suggest all of you stay here, I'll open the next town portal. I've seen too many over eager fools run out only to be slaughtered." He ascended the stairs in complete silence.

Neku opened the doors to the second floor as gazed at the shining sun. It was setting which cast a magnificent red glow across the horizon. Neku sighed, he may have overacted his part downstairs, but hopefully that would keep people out of his way. If people hated him, less people would annoy him. As he breathed in the fresh air, a ringing sound alerted him of a window. Looking down, he saw a small window had appeared before him.

It read:

Congratulations on reaching the second floor. The makers at CAT have decided to give you a present for your achievement.

Neku tapped the circle on the window for another prompt to appear.

 _Would you like to learn the psych skill?_


	4. Getting Psyched

Sword Art Online and The World Ends with You are not owned by me, but this is a work of my own creation. Please do not take any ideas without permission.

§

Neku had no idea what kind of skill "psych" was. It could be a short hand form of the word "psychic" which is what it looked like as the only skill he had currently was something called "scan." When utilized it would apparently allow Neku to see the stats of another player or monster when he focused on it. So far though, the psych skill was so under leveled that it only told him the person's or monster's name. Every other space was filled by question marks. Neku begrudgingly admitted that this skill would be useful later in the game, but right now it was still in the early stages in the game, when choosing your beginning skills was most important. Neku knew most of the names, levels, attacks, and so on of monsters on the lower levels thanks to his beta test run, a skill like this would do him no good.

As much as he wanted to get rid of it, the gamer part of him told him that outright deleting the skill would be a major waste. He asked Kirito about the skill, but even the beta tester extraordinaire had not heard about it, He did give a suggestion though. So, a day after the clearing the first floor, Neku sat on a bench waiting for one of the many people he had the displeasure of talking with.

"Nekky! So good of you to call me for a chat!"

Neku's eye twitched dangerously as he mentally debated just standing up and walking away. Eventually, he decided that dealing with Argo the Rat for a few minutes to satiate his curiosity would be worth the pain of dealing with the over eccentric girl.

"I have told you the name is Neku," the orange haired boy ground out, "Now, I have a question for you, how much will it cost me?"

Neku saw Argo's eyes light up as a positively irritating smile grew on her face, "Why, what's this? Is Neku going to finally use my services?"

Neku scowled, "Don't say that again, ever. I don't want anyone misinterpreting that.

Argo gave a playful grin, "Oh lighten up! Everybody knows little old Argo is an info broker through and through."

Neku scoffed, "Right, so anyway, how much to ask a question?"

Argo put her hands on her hips and smiled, "Depends on the question really, the more obscure the question's answer, the more it will cost."

Neku nodded, "I see, well then, since the beta test, has there been any new skills discovered?"

Argo immediately scrunched her face in concentration and frowned, "Skills? Looking for anything specific or?"

Neku shook his head, "No, I was just wondering if something came out that I didn't already know."

Argo frowned, "I know most of the skills that are out right now, so I can tell you that there are no new skills discovered as of right now according to my network."

Neku sighed, "I see, well then, how much for that tidbit?"

Argo shrugged, "For a first-time customer like yourself, I give that to you, no money required.

Neku raised an eyebrow, "that so? Well color me surprised, the rat wants no compensation, well see you around I guess." With that, the headphone wearing boy stood up and started to walk away.

In hindsight he really should have expected Argo's hand to latch on his shoulder with a grip of steel.

"Now, hold on, I said that I would give you a piece of info for no money, not free of charge, how about you give me a little bit of information yourself, like about those shiny headphones you have on right now?"

" _Dirty little rat,"_ Neku thought as he turned around, "can't say much about them, they were the exclusive prize for the CAT X SAO collaboration. The winner got the coordinates to the chest that contained it. The only notable effect is that is changes the BGM of the game to CAT classics, and lets the user listen to other CAT music. It gives no particular buffs or stats in general."

Argo nodded, "Hmm, I see, so that is an exclusive rare item then?"

Neku shrugged, "pretty much, now if you will excuse me."

Neku turned around and gave a half-hearted wave back to Argo as he headed out to the field to train. The second floor was mostly focused on plains. Bulls were a common enemy on this floor and was mainly considered the "cow floor" by most players. Currently, Neku was headed out to a less well-known field that spawned moderately strong monsters at a decent rate.

Neku was about to start killing some monsters when someone called out to him, "Yo Phones over here!"

Neku groaned in annoyance and turned to face the two blond-haired siblings as they came scrambling up to him. Beat with a huge smile on and Rhyme with a subdued one.

"Phones, you da man back in the boss room yo!"

Neku raised an eyebrow, "Oh?"

Beat clenched his fist and smashed it into his palm, "You and Kirito were hella tight! The way you beat down that boss was sick yo!"

Neku frowned, "Yeah what about the whole conversation afterwards?"

Beat laughed, "I don't know nothing bout a conversation yo! After we won I was celebrating."

Neku sighed, he should have expected Beat to not pay attention to the tense atmosphere after they had won, so instead he asked, "what are you guys doing here anyway?"

Rhyme smiled, "We asked Kirito for a good training spot that wasn't too hard, and he told us to go here."

Neku nodded, "I see, well if that is all…"

Beat shook his head, "No way, now that it is the three of us, training here is going be sweet! We gotta work together, since we friends and all."

Neku was about to mention that no, they were not his friends, but Beat was already running off, "Imma get us a bull to kill yo! Rhyme, you add him to our party aight!" Like that the loudmouth blond was gone. Rhyme smiled and opened her menu, and soon enough a window appeared in front of Neku.

Neku had half a mind to just his the 'X' button to reject the invite and just work on his own, his finger actually started to head for it, but he stopped when Rhyme spoke.

"You don't have to join if you don't want to you know," the small blond girl said as she looked at him with a smile, "but I am glad we found you out here, I wanted to ask you a question."

Neku's eyebrows rose fractionally, "a question?"

The girl nodded, "Beat wasn't really listening to what happened down in the boss room, but I listened, and I know what happened. I was just wondering, why did you do it? How did you bare some many players hatred on yourself?"

Neku frowned, he really didn't want to talk about this with someone, especially not someone he had not known for even a week.

Before he could respond however, Rhyme continued, "I know, that look on your face is telling me to 'mind my own business' right? Either way, thank you."

Neku was taken aback, "What?"

Rhyme gave a soft smile, "Someone once said, 'A house divided cannot stand.' If we all stopped distrusting each other so early in this game, we would have never advanced, but you took on the burden of being the enemy, with everyone looking down at you, everyone else can work together more coherently. Your action may have just saved us all."

Neku snorted, "You know, you could just be assuming all of that yourself, I could really just hate people."

Rhyme smile seemed to brighten at his words, "True, I guess that is all just speculation on my part, but I don't think that you hate people. If anything, it looks like you could use some friends, and Beat and I are willing if you want to try it out."

Neku frowned and was about to make a biting remark when a voice interrupted them, "Yo! I got us a target, and Phones, how come you haven't joined up with us yet?"

Beat marched over to see Neku with the party invite window still up.

Beat smiled, "You just click this thing as you'll be the party, see?" Beat immediately grabbed Neku's hand and forced him to press the accept button.

Neku scowled, "I never said I wanted to…"

Beat shushed him, "Not now Phones, we have an enemy coming right at us."

Sure enough, a bull was charging at them, but this one was a bit different.

Neku took a step back, "Wait a second! That is the roaming boss Bovine Bill! Why did you get that one?!"

Beat rubbed his nose with a smirk on his face, "hehe, you see, since I knew you would be joining us, I looked for the strongest monster I could find, and I found that guy.

Neku cursed, "you moron! That takes a full party of six to take in on normally! We have only three!"

Beat laughed, "Chill yo, we got three skilled players! This fight will be easy!"

Neku scowled, "tell yourself that after we win." With that Neku's blade was drawn and he started to run forward.

The battle was as Neku suspected, a tough one. The only factors that saved them was the average level of the three was currently higher than when Neku had tried in the beta, the fact that Neku had prior knowledge of the monster's moves, and Beat's strength stat was still enormous.

Neku would call out the boss' moves and either he or Rhyme would parry it, only for Beat to come in and use a high-powered sword skill to deal a chunk of damage. It was slow going, the damage that Beat deal was large, but the boss had three bars of health. After a grueling two-hour fight, the three sat down as the large bull shattered into blue shards.

"See Phones, easy fight, like I told ya," gasped out Beat.

Neku was too tired to retort so he just settled for glaring at him.

Rhyme drew a large breath in before letting out a laugh, "Either way, good job you two."

Neku checked his rewards window to see if he had gotten any relevant drops. While the col and experience were what he had assumed he would get, the drops were lackluster, a horn and some hides. He could get this crap from a number of things on the floor. Neku scratched his head in frustration.

"Oh I looks like I got something good!"

Neku looked up to see Rhyme looking excitedly at her rewards window, she closed it and immediately opened her menu so she could alter her character mannequin. Soon after her waist glowed and a belt appeared.

"Leather belt that gives plus one to dexterity," said Rhyme as she smiled at the other two, "did you guys get anything good?"

Neku shook his head while Beat pout it and said, "Bwaaah! You got something but we didn't? Come on Phones let's fight it again and get something this time!"

Neku sighed, "We can't fight it again for now, it will take around 4 hours for it to respawn. Plus, we used up a good amount of items to fight that bull, if anything we should go back to town and restock supplies if we wanted to fight it again."

Beat's shoulder slumped, "What? Seriously man…"

Rhyme patted him on the shoulder, "Its fine Beat, you'll get something next time."

Neku got up and brushed himself off, "You guys can do what you want, I'm going to fight more."

Beat nodded and stood up as well, "hell yeah Phones, now your talking! We need to level up and fight that thing again!"

Neku shrugged, "Whatever, just don't hold me back."

With that, the three of them hunted monsters for a while, and Neku had to admit that both Beat and Rhyme had gotten better at fighting than when he first met them.

As the day wore down, Beat and Rhyme left saying they had prior arrangements.

"Tell me next time your going out to train," Beat said as he cracked his knuckles, "We can team up again and flatten some monsters yo!"

Neku rolled his eyes, "Sure, I'll think about it."

The two had said their goodbyes and left Neku by himself. Neku sighed as he turned around to fight some more enemies. He had wasted a good portion of the day dealing with those two, though he grudgingly admitted it had been more efficient to train with them. The reason he had chosen such an obscure location however, was to try and raise the proficiency of the psych skill. Usage was the only way to increase proficiency. The usage of the scan option of the psych skill was easy, just go into your menu and activate it, however, it changed the color of the person's eyes to a deep red color. Neku had supposed that Beat and Rhyme would have asked why his irises had changed so he had held off till now.

The skill could be left on and a small percentage of proficiency would be gained in a variable amount of time, the percentage gain was only .01 percent at a rate between 5 to 10 minutes. He also noticed that the longer he had it on, the longer it would take to gain proficiency points. Having it on constantly strained his eyes as well, so he only used it while fighting. He sighed as he activated it, it was currently around 6 proficiency, he hoped it would get another skill soon… or at least improve. With that thought, he turned and started to attack.

-§-

It had been three days since Neku had seen Kirito. Kirito only offered the explanation of "secret training" when asked though. Neku really didn't care, but Asuna was much more aggravated at Kirito's lackadaisical attitude. The reason all three of them were together was due to Asuna's request. She had found out that the weapon upgrade material needed to upgrade her precious rapier, the Wind Fleuret, was the wind wasp needle. Since it had a drop rate of around eight percent, Asuna had asked both Neku and Kirito to come out and help her, in exchange, she would pay for dinner. Considering Wind Wasps gave a fair amount of EXP when killed, Neku was not against the idea of helping out. So the three had gathered in the field a bit after noon to hunt. Before they began, Asuna made a comment.

"Hey, so I went to a restaurant the other day, and I saw this really delicious looking cake."

Kirito nodded, "I'm guessing your talking about the Tremble Shortcake, I heard it was pretty good."

Neku narrowed his eyes, "Where are you going with this?"

Asuna smiled, "Well, how about we have a contest between the three of us? We hunt Wind Wasps and whoever kills 50 first is the winner, and gets to order a dessert, at the cost of the other two losers."

Neku frowned, "I remember seeing the pricing of that cake, that is quite the amount of money that you would be using to buy just a cake."

Asuna's eyes sparkled, "Which is why the losers would split the cost, it is the perfect solution."

Kirito smirked, "Hold on now, by the way you are talking it seems you think you already won. I refuse to be talked down to like that, I'm in."

Neku rolled his eyes at Kirito, _"He fell for that hook, line, and sinker."_

Asuna looked at Neku, "How about you, mister beta tester? Too scared?"

Neku scoffed, "Fine, don't cry if you lose," he said as he drew his sword and opened his menu. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, the irises were red.

The three dashed off in earnest, aiming to kill as many wind wasps as possible. Asuna had been fighting these for a long time, and she showed it by dismantling them with ruthless efficiency. Compared to the slower bulls and cows on the floor, the wasps were quick and posed a problem against Kirito and Neku who had been fighting slower enemies. As Asuna's count slowly out paced the two boys, Kirito decided to pull out all the stops.

After slashing a wasp with a Vertical Arc sword skill his fist gathered power and he struck the wasp again, further depleting its HP, it took a single basic attack from his sword to finish it off afterword.

"The heck was that?" questioned Neku as he dodged and slashed at another wasp.

Kirito grinned as he punched another wasp, causing it to burst in to blue shards, "This? This is my ticket to victory."

Neku's eye twitched is annoyance, "cheeky as always huh? Don't get cocky."

Kirito laughed, "I don't want to hear that from the loser!"

After that comment, the boys separated, looking for different targets.

-§-

Asuna looked dejectedly at Neku who swung his sword up to rest it on his shoulder, "How? How did you come back after I started so well…"

Kirito looked tired as well, "I went all out showing my new skill and you still won…"

Neku shrugged, "I guess I got lucky."

Kirito frowned, "luck only has a part of it I assume, I am guessing the reason you won is because of your new skill, right?"

Asuna tilted her head and looked a Kirito, "New skill? Did he do something different?"

Kirito nodded, "Look at Neku, specifically his eyes."

Asuna looked before jerked back in surprise, "they're red…"

Kirito nodded, "Neku contacted me a few days ago about a skill I never heard about, I told him to ask Argo about it, and that is all I know about it. I assume it does something to your vision though, am I right?"

Neku rolled his eyes, "I'll tell you about it later, for now how many needles do you each have? I have 5 including the ones I farmed a day ago."

Kirito opened his menu, "I have 3 only."

Asuna looked in her inventory, "I have 8 of them."

Neku frowned, "What success rate do you want to get while trying for the upgrade?"

"95 percent success rate," responded Asuna while puffing out her cheeks in annoyance, "The highest one you can get, obviously."

Kirito did a quick mental calculation, "to get the highest success rate, you would need 20 needles."

Neku sighed, "four more huh? If the drop rate is eight percent..."

Asuna finished instantly, "Then we would need to kill around 50 more wasps."

Kirito nodded, "That means we are killing around 17 wasps each."

Asuna smirked, "Hey, how about double or nothing on that bet?"

Neku gave her a sidelong glance, red eyes giving an ominous glow, "are you sure that is a good idea?"

Asuna slumped, "Fine… I'll pay."

Kirito gave a chuckle, "Come on, let's fight." With that comment the group split up once more.

-§-

"So, tell me how you got this Psych skill," muttered Kirito as he chewed his steak. The group had finished hunting and as promised, Asuna had taken them out to a small and secluded restaurant and bought them dinner. The main choices were all beef, it was the cow floor after all, so the three settled on steaks and made small conversation as they ate.

Neku sighed and pointed at his headphones, "I got the skill from these I assume."

Kirito nodded sagely while Asuna looked confused, "You got them for wearing an accessory? Where can I get that?"

Neku shook his head and explained in full about how he had been the contest winner of the crossover event and had been given the instructions to get said headphones. Neku continued on explaining how he first got the Psych skill as well as all he had figured out about it so far.

"The latest thing I got from it was something akin to a weak point indicator. When I look at a monster, I can see glowing lights emanating from their body, if I strike there, my chances for a critical hit improves dramatically," said Neku, finishing his explanation.

Kirito crossed his arms and gave a thoughtful hum, "So that is how you were able to beat us in the contest, you were getting critical hits left and right due to your skill."

Asuna sat back in her chair and crossed her arms, "well, if you ask me, that is just unfair, you getting a rare skill all for yourself just because you were some contest winner," suddenly she smiled as an idea popped into her head, "Hey, how about you let me equip the headphones, I might be able to learn the skill as well."

Neku rolled his eyes, "it is not that easy, the headphones cannot be traded after being equipped."

Asuna sighed again while Neku turned to Kirito, "Talking about skills, how about you tell us about that punching skill you were using earlier."

Kirito grinned, "Martial Arts, I got the skill after a long trial on top of one the of the mountains. It took me three days to complete the quest, but it definitely is worth it though, a skill to help out even if you get disarmed is a great advantage to have.

Neku narrowed his eyes, "How did you hear about that? I asked Argo if there had been any new skills and she said there was nothing new, certainly nothing about this skill."

Kirito shrugged, "You'll have to ask her herself for that, I am not going to spoil anything."

Neku huffed in annoyance, "Whatever, I'm ordering the dessert now, that ok with you two?"

Both Asuna and Kirito flinched, the price, even when split between the two of them, was no small amount. The Trembling Shortcake cost more than the three meals that Asuna had already paid for.

Asuna gave a sheepish smile, "Hey Neku, I just paid for three meals, could you cut me some slack?"

Neku scoffed, "Denied, you proposed this bet, see it through to the end."

Asuna nodded, full of resignation, Kirito gave a laugh, half of mirth, half of defeat, and called over the waitress to place the order. When the cake arrived a few minutes later, Neku's eyes widened. The cake was huge, with what seemed to be a full quart of cream piled on top of it. Neku sighed, he almost felt bad for making them buy something so extravagant, especially since he was not crazy about eating sweets. There was a different reason why he got it though.

Swiftly he opened his menu and activated the scan subskill. His irises changed to a red color and he focused on the cake before speaking out in surprise, "This is interesting."

Asuna and Kirito looked at him confused and Neku proceeded to explain, "Apparently, eating this gives a luck buff. No wonder it was so expensive."

Asuna's mouth seemed to be watering as she continued to look at the cake. Meanwhile Kirito seemed to be calculating the total volume of the cake.

Neku sighed and cut the cake in half before splitting one half in half again. He transferred the one fourth onto his plate and gave the other fourth to Kirito. Finally, he slid the rest to Asuna, who gave him an incredulous look.

Neku glanced at Asuna, "You have to upgrade your sword after this, so you need this buff, besides, you just bought us dinner, so I am cutting you some slack. Now hurry up and eat before I change my mind."

The other two dug in before he could say another word. Neku took his fork and dug in as well. He had to admit, even with the excessive amount of cream, the cake still was pretty tasty.

As the three exited the restaurant, Asuna had a huge smile on her face, "That was so delicious! I hope I can eat a full one next time!" She turned to Neku, "Thank you for sharing."

Neku nodded, before checking the buff icon below his HP bar in his peripheries, "Yeah, the taste was nice, but the luck buff is not really great, you can't do much in the fifteen minutes they give you."

Kirito shrugged, "We can still try to upgrade Asuna's weapon now that we have the luck buff, come on let's go." The two nodded and the group started to head down the street. Before long they heard a rhythmic pounding coming from around the corner.

Kirito snapped his fingers, "that's right, they say a player on the front lines is a blacksmith, we should go there, I hear they have higher success rates than NPC blacksmiths.

Neku shrugged, "Asuna has a 95 percent chance and a luck buff, I don't think I will matter."

Asuna shook her head, "Any chance to have a higher percentage of success is a chance I am willing to take."

Neku sighed, but followed the two as they approached the player that had set up a small shop on the side of the street. The blacksmith had set up a small table holding his wares such as daggers, rapiers and some short swords. To his right, a portable forge roared. A small sign on the side said Nezha's blacksmithing shop.

The boy looked up, "Welcome… how can I help you today? Looking for a weapon, repairs perhaps?"

Asuna smiled, "an upgrade for my Wind Fleuret +4, upgrading for accuracy please."

The blacksmith nodded, "I see, and the materials?"

Asuna nodded, "I have all of them here." She promptly opened her menu and retrieved all the wind wasp needles and 4 steel plates in separate bags.

The blacksmith smiled, "For upgrading to +5, there is a 3500 col fee for an upgrade attempt, are you ok with that?

Asuna nodded, paid the 3500 col and handed over the upgrade materials.

The blacksmith nodded, "Alright, I will begin."

Neku put his hands in his pockets and watched as Asuna handed over her sword to the blacksmith, he laid it down on the anvil and went to add the upgrade materials to the portable furnace. He noticed Asuna reach out and grab Kirito's hand as well, saying something akin to "luck buff," under her breath. Neku supposed that no matter how unsuperstitious the logical and scientific girl was, she was willing to try and give herself the best odds, even relying on a luck buff.

He turned back and witnessed the flash of the blacksmith adding the materials, but he noticed something off, the rapier on the anvil was different. Due to him never turning off his "scan" skill, he could tell the rapier was no longer +4, but a +2. Confused he was about to call out, but the blacksmith started immediately after. Neku bit his tongue, not wanting to ruin the blacksmith's concentration. If he stopped now, the result would end up as a failure. Neku crossed his arms in silence, perhaps his scan skill had malfunctioned? It was a one of a kind skill after all. As the 10th strike came down on the rapier, the unexpected happened, the rapier shattered.

Nezha apologized profusely, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so very sorry! I will return your money I'm really sorry about this."

Asuna just had a broken look on her face as she stared at where the rapier used to be. Kirito was shocked as well before exclaiming, "Wait! That kind of thing can't happen! The worst thing to happen to a weapon for a failed upgrade is for it to go down a level for +4 to +3! Weapon destruction only happened when trying to upgrade a weapon that would exceed its upgrade attempts!"

Neku's eyes widened, _"that's right… weapon destruction only happens in very specific cases, that must mean that the_ _Wind Fleuret +2 I saw was not an error, the weapon was really switched. Meaning that Asuna's weapon is actually sitting in his inventory… but how do we get it back?"_

Neku's eyes flashed as he thought of a strategy, but first he turned his attention back to the conversation at hand.

The blacksmith wrung his hands together, "This… this kind of thing happened once before as well… it may be a new punishment that was added to the game after launch…"

Kirito clenched his fist in frustration, Neku stepped in, "I see, you said you can return the money right?"

The boy nodded and brought up the trade window, and paid the 3500 col back to the dejected Asuna. Neku then nodded at to Nezha, put a hand on Asuna's back and started to steer her away from the vendor.

Kirito gave out a sigh, "Sorry, Asuna why don't you rest for now? Neku and I will discuss about rapier options on the second floor.

Neku shook his head, "We aren't doing that."

Kirito swung his head at Neku and hissed, "Neku, now is not the time for antisocial bullsh-"

Neku cut him off, "No you moron, I am saying we won't do that because we don't need to do that. We will just get her weapon back."

Kirito and Asuna looked at Neku with absolute confusion, Neku shrugged, "let's get to an inn, I will explain once we get there." The other two nodded and a few minutes later found them all in a single bedroom.

"Alright Asuna, open your menu and go to the items tab."

Asuna tilted her head to he side in confusion, but did as she was told.

Neku nodded, "Go to the settings button in the inventory tab and select 'organize inventory.' After that…" What followed were a step by step directions forcing Asuna through many levels of windows within the menu.

Kirito realized what was happening halfway through, if the widening of his eyes was anything to go on. He had took up a thinking pose as Neku continued to give Asuna instruction. Finally the last window appeared in front of Asuna.

Neku pointed at the window, "Now hit 'yes.'"

Asuna read the text, "But… this is going to materialize all the inventory I currently have into the game… I don't want to do that…"

Neku raised an eyebrow, "Do you want to your sword back?"

Asuna nodded, "Well yeah, but I don't see how-"

Neku promptly cut her off, "Then hit the yes button."

Asuna seemed to be furiously debating before saying, "Well, don't look at all the stuff I have ok? I was practicing my tailoring skill." With that, she pressed the button.

A cornucopia of items started materializing such as potions, armor, monster drops, etc. The most heavily prevalent items however were bras and panties.

Neku rolled his eyes at the sight, this is what she meant by practicing her tailoring skill. Neku started to shuffle though the pile, digging down to the metal items underneath, after a minute or two of digging he found what he was looking for. With a jerk to free it from being tangled up with other items, Neku presented her with her own Wind Fleuret +4.

-§-

A fun side note, I did not put the comment of Kirito calculating the volume of cake in as a joke, this is an actual thing that he does. It happens in the light novel and is mentioned in his Trivia area on the wiki.


	5. Unexpected Circumstances

Sword Art Online and The World Ends with You are not owned by me, but this is a work of my own creation. Please do not take any ideas without permission.

-§-

Neku held out the light rapier towards the chestnut-haired girl, who accepted it graciously. Asuna looked at it before looking up at him before looking back towards the sword, "But how?" she whispered, as if she spoke any louder, the sword would disappear like mist.

Neku scratched his head, "Let me explain. When you went to upgrade your sword, I still had my skill 'scan' active. Your rapier is a +4 sword, but when he started to hammer the blade, it had changed to a +2. I had thought that it was an error until-"

Kirito cut in, "Till I said that the only way a weapon would break from forging was that it was upgraded past its limit.

Neku nodded, "Right, I then realized that he had switched out the swords at one point, and your weapon was still in one piece, except in his inventory."

Kirito rubbed his chin, "So you used the "materialize all inventory trick to retrieve the stolen rapier, nice thinking."

Neku shrugged, "I didn't want her weapon to go to waste after all the effort she put into it. But we have a problem on our hands."

Asuna tilted her head to her side, "Huh? We got my sword back, so there is no harm done."

Neku rolled his eyes, "We don't know how that blacksmith traded out your weapon for a fake, and we certainly don't know why he did either."

Kirito nodded, "Asuna, you haven't made any enemies, have you?'

Asuna gave Kirito a glare which read, 'what do you think?'

Kirito held up his hands in a placating manner, "Ok, ok, just checking. But that brings up more questions. I'll contact Argo and see if she can dig up some dirt on the subject.

Neku nodded, "She might be able to give us some insight on the situation on hand. Call her here if you can, it would be a pain to talk through messages."

Kirito nodded and soon after he was typing a quick message to Argo. Neku meanwhile turned to face Asuna, "Well it is good that we got back your sword, though your upgrade materials were wasted…"

Asuna gave a soft smile, "The materials are nothing compared to the sword itself. I am happy that it really wasn't destroyed.

Neku crossed his arms, "All the power to you for feeling that way, but it took us a good chunk of time to harvest all of those needles. All that time is now down the drain. Your blade may not be ready for the raid because of that blacksmith."

Asuna's smile faded to give way to a troubled expression, "True… it was hard to get all of those wind wasp needles…"

Kirito smiled and spoke up, "We can help you gather those again if you like, they give good experience and you are a precious member of the raiding group."

Neku frowned, "we need to find out why that guy switched Asuna's weapon first, we can discuss the details for material gathering details later. Kirito, what did Argo say?"

"Why Nekky, I didn't know you were so eager to see me!"

Neku tried to not grind his teeth too hard when the most famous info broker of all of Aincrad came waltzing through the door.

Argo continued, "I didn't think you would want to see me, but now you're asking about me? Could this be what I think it is?" Argo pointed at him while giving a mock swoon, "have you fallen for me?"

The Sword Art Online facial recreation system was complicated. Usually, the Nerve Gear would sense the will of the user and display the appropriate face, such as a smile, frown, etc. However, when a particular emotion is felt in excess, the Nerve Gear would take that into account and display an appropriate face. This made it difficult to hide emotions such as embarrassment, pure ill intent, and anger.

After Argo's particular comment, the SAO system must have constructed a truly terrifying face because the other three occupants in the room froze up due to fear.

Argo held up her hands in a placating manner, "Hahaha, I get it, no more jokes like that from now on, I'm sorry please forgive me."

After Neku calmed down, the situation was explained to Argo. Neku was less than pleased to tell Argo about his 'scan' and by extension, the 'Psych' skill, especially after trying to keep it hidden, but it was necessary. He could have done without the mischievous glint that ignited in her eyes as he talked about the unique skill however.

Argo put a hand on her chin, "I see... truth is, this had happened before, six times to be exact. All of the weapons that broke were owned by people from the raid group, meaning that they were all high tier items."

Kirito frowned, "So this blacksmith is weakening the raid group on purpose, but why? We all have the same goal of clearing the game and getting out of here, who would willingly slowdown that process?"

Neku shrugged, "Let's change focus for now, we can only make theories on to why he is doing this, first we need to find out how he is doing this, and then catch him in the act."

Argo nodded, "Neku's right, let's discuss the transaction you three had when you went to have your weapon upgraded. Were there any suspicious actions? Any moves out of the ordinary?"

Kirito shook his head, "No, though I was not really paying close attention to him."

Asuna nodded, "me neither…. I was looking at my weapon the entire time, even when I went to hold…" Asuna trailed off and a small blush adorned her cheeks. Kirito was currently looking away and covering his mouth, but Neku could see some pink dusting his cheeks as well.

Neku rolled his eyes, "Focus you two, I was looking at the weapon as well for a majority of the time, but it suddenly changed from a +4 to a +2. It is not like the sword dematerialized, then rematerialized a few seconds later. I didn't even see him open his menu."

Argo frowned, "Hmm, an instantaneous switch without even opening the menu huh? I'd say that is impossible…"

Asuna crossed her arms, "Is an instantaneous switch even possible?"

Kirito nodded, "It is, there is an additional weapon ability that you can unlock called 'quick change.' It allows you to instantly equip a preset weapon in your inventory to your main weapon slot while putting the currently equipped weapon into storage. However, there is a light effect and the menu needs to be opened. Something like that shouldn't have gone unnoticed, especially if you were watching your weapon the entire time."

Asuna nodded, "I guess, though I did squint when he added the materials to the forge."

Kirito and Argo seemed to realize something at the exact same time, since they both screamed, "that's it!" causing Asuna to jump.

The long-haired girl looked back and forth rapid, "Huh. What?"

Kirito grinned, "The light from the forge! It will flare up when the materials are added!"  
Argo nodded, "That's right! If he used the quick change subskill, he could switch it at the same time and nobody would be the wiser!"

Asuna frowned, "But I thought the menu had to be open, Neku said that-"

Neku cut her off, "I said that I didn't see him open his menu, that doesn't mean he didn't open his menu at all."

Asuna turned to look at him and he continued, "While we were paying attention to the sword itself, we weren't looking at his hands, and now that I think about it, that weapon display piece seems to be a bit big to just be holding daggers."

Kirito nodded, "That's right, that is certainly enough room from him to manipulate his menu without being seen."

Argo smiled, "Alright, now all we need to do is test this theory. We need to catch him in the act."

Asuna frowned, "How would we do that? Wait around until someone else gets an upgrade?"

Neku shook his head, "Waiting around for a clearing raid group member to got to that specific blacksmith to get an upgrade would take forever. We need to bait him with a high-tier weapon."

Kirito sighed, "Unfortunately, it can't be any of us, he knows our faces after the attempt with Asuna, he will be unwilling to try anything sneaky with us around."

Argo frowned, "I am also an info broker, he wouldn't try anything suspicious with me either. We could have someone wear a suit of armor though."

Neku shook his head, "I got a better idea."

-§-

"Whatchu say? Some asshole tried to take Asuna's weapon for himself? Where is he? I hope he's ready for a beatdown!"

Asuna gave a small chuckle as Rhyme tried to calm down Beat after his latest outburst.

"Beat you can't attack a player inside the city. The game forbids it." Rhyme said softly.

Beat cracked his knuckles, "Heh, he can't hide in the city forever!"

Rhyme's eyes widened in alarm, "Beat! If you attack a player outside of a safe zone you will be branded as an orange player! You can't do that!"

Asuna gave Rhyme a sheepish smile, "Sorry for working up your brother, and putting unnecessary burdens on you both. "

Rhyme shook her head and gave a bright smile, "No, it would never be a bother, as they say, 'A problem shared is a problem halved.' You are our friend Asuna, we would help you with anything."

Beat nodded and gave Asuna a thumbs up, "You said it Rhyme! We're friends, we got your rear!"

Rhyme sighed, "Back, Beat, we got your back…"

Kirito chuckled, "Anyway, let's go over an attack plan."

The group talked for about an hour, formulating a plan that had the highest chance of success. Eventually they solidified a strategy that seemed foolproof.

Neku breathed in, "Ok Beat, do you understand the plan?"

Beat nodded, "I got this Phones, we cool, I'm gonna walk up to the blacksmith and hand him my weapon for an upgrade, then when he goes to upgrade it, I beat him down."

It seems the plan wasn't actually 'foolproof' but Neku, as well as the others had expected that.

Neku turned to Rhyme, "Rhyme, we're counting on you."

Rhyme nodded, "I'll get the proof you need, no sweat."

The plan would involve grinding Beat's two-handed axe skill proficiency, so the operation was set 2 days from now. Neku would help the two train in the dungeon, while Kirito and Asuna would once again gather wind wasp needles to upgrade her rapier, before joining them. The group all nodded to each other and broke for the night. It would be a long two days until the operation.

-§-

"I'll be honest, I really hope Beat doesn't mess this up," stated Neku as he watched Nezha from behind via a window of an unoccupied building.

Kirito rolled his eyes, "Come on Neku, have a little faith in him, I mean, you are the one who suggested him."

Neku shook his head, "I suggested him because if we failed, none of **our** weapons would be lost."

Asuna frowned, "They're our friends! Don't treat them like some sort of expendable tool!"

Neku scoffed, "Asuna, I was joking, lighten up a little."

Asuna clenched her hand into a fist, "I don't want to hear that from you."

Argo shushed them, "Quiet, here they come."

Sure enough, the siblings were making their way towards Nezha the blacksmith. Beat stepped up to the mat and started to talk. They talked for a while until Beat brought out his two-handed axe. The blacksmith accepted it and placed it down on the anvil.

"Alright, pay attention," muttered Kirito. The four players stared hard at Nezha's actions.

With practiced efficiency, with his right hand, the blacksmith took the materials and threw them in the furnace. At the same time however the left hand, which had been hidden behind the display board, opened the menu. The furnace flared up, and in that moment, and the left hand pressed a button. The weapon flashed at that instant. Neku's scan skill registered it not as Beat's Great Axe +3 but a Great Axe +0.

The blacksmith raised his hammer and after ten resounding strikes, the axe as planned, shattered to bits. The blacksmith followed his script and apologized harshly for breaking his weapon. Rhyme nodded before sending a discreet glance in the hidden group's direction.

It seems that Beat however, had forgotten this part of the plan, since his face was filled with panic.

"BWaaahah! What the hell happened to my weapon?! How did it shatter yo?!"

Rhyme put her hands up in a placating manner, "Beat, the weapon mod you just got."

Beat frowned before widening his eyes in realization, "Hehe, that's right Rhyme, I remember now!"

He opened his menu and just as Nezha had, activated the quick change weapon mod. There was a flash of light and his two-handed axe appeared in his hand. The blacksmith was beyond surprised.

"This is our cue," said Neku as he got up and started walked out of the building, the others following soon after.

They came upon Beat with a maniacal grin on his face, his hand a had a vice grip on the blacksmith's shoulder. Nezha had a terrified look on his face. Beat looked up, "Yo Phones, we go our man."

Nezha turned and when he spotted them his eyes widened.

Kirito glared at him, "Well Mr. Blacksmith, we would like a word with you, I hope you're not busy."

One hour later, the entire group was situated on the second floor of an NPC building. The entire story was out. Nezha was doing the upgrading scam to help the Legend Braves, an unofficial guild that he was a part of.

His nerve gear had a Full-Dive nonconformity, or FNC for short. His depth perception was inhibited disallowing him to judge how far away an object was. This was fatal in a fighting game such as SAO, and to try and fight with such an inability was a death wish. His group had tried to train him with him using the throwing blades ability, but they soon found out that no matter how much damage you can inflict with it, there was an ammo limit. Throwing blades would never be a main damage dealer unless they could get a weapon with no ammo limit, which was impossible. Eventually the first floor raid had been formed, but the Legend Braves had been too weak to join since they had been trying to help Nezha. Nezha had originally picked up blacksmithing to forge his own throwing blades, but he continued it to try and get revenue to add to the funds of the Legend Braves, but as expected the process was slow.

That was when a mysterious cloaked man had approached them with a quick rich scheme, selling off high tier weapons of other players. They had been desperate, and the probability of them getting caught was low, due to the nature of the scheme. So, they had consented.

Nezha hung his head, "I knew it was wrong… but I had held my group back. We were supposed to take Aincrad by storm, but due to me, we aren't…"

The group stayed silent. It was a sad tale, sure, but to Neku it was not heartbreaking, it was like one of those trashy soap operas that his mom would watch sometimes. At first glance it seemed sad, but as soon as you started to ask questions it fell apart. The legend braves didn't NEED to be a front clearing guild early. They could have taken Aincrad by storm on the later floor, hell they were only on floor two so far, they could easily catch up.

Kirito was clearly thinking the same thing, since he said, "Nezha, you currently have cornered the market with your blacksmithing business, and while it would take some time, if you build up an incredible reputation, you could make boatloads of money and fund the Legend Braves.

Nezha nodded and gave a wry laugh, "Yeah, your right, I could have done just that, and nobody would have gotten scammed… but I wanted to be… a Brave too."

Neku sighed, _"There's the catch."_

The problem was simple, Nezha didn't want to be a blacksmith. In a world of action and adventure, nobody didn't want to stay in a town all day, hammering at weapons if they didn't want to. Nezha would have been a frontline warrior with everyone else if he had the chance. Now, with the path that he had chosen, he would be a bank that the Legend Braves would constantly suck dry. He only took the position out of guilt of robbing the others of their own chance.

"You said you used throwing weapons, right?"

Neku was brought out of his thoughts by Kirito's voice once more. Nezha nodded, "Yeah, but it is not very helpful. There is no such weapon with infinite ammo."

Kirito nodded, "That's right, such a broken weapon wouldn't exist, but how about a weapon that comes back to you?"

Kirito materialized an item from his inventory and placed it on the table. It was a small circular metal disc, in short, it was a chakram. Neku click his tongue in annoyance. It had been a rare drop from a roaming boss that the group had taken down a day ago.

Nezha's eyes widened and he slowly reached for the weapon, however as soon as he was going to touch it, Kirito swiped it out of his grasp. Holding it in front of Nezha's face between two fingers, Kirito spoke, "To use this weapon you have to have an extra skill besides the throwing skill. Do you have any open skill slots?"

Nezha shook his head, "No… I don't"

Kirito gaze sharpened, "Then let me ask you this, are you prepared to give you your blacksmithing skill for this chance?"

Nezha looked at him, then nodded.

-§-

The next day, the entire group of Kirito, Neku, Asuna, Beat, Rhyme, Argo, and Nezha found themselves on top of a plateau on the southern end of the floor. They were here to get the Martial arts skill that Kirito had been so secretive about before. Apparently, it could only be obtained on top of this cliff, therefore they had hiked out to the spot. A lone man sat on a rock with a golden question mark over his head.

Kirito pointed, "That is the NPC you need to talk to start the quest to the martial arts skill. It was tough, but I managed to do it. You need to shatter one of these rocks."

Neku tapped one of the rocks with his knuckle before frowning, "Quite a hassle, these things seem indestructible."  
Kirito nodded, "yeah, but the martial arts skill is worth it, especially if you are disarmed."

It seems that is all Beat needed to hear, he bounded over to the old man to start the quest. Asuna went over as well, intrigued by the rare skill, followed slowly by Nezha.

Neku frowned, "Oi! Kirito said it took him three days to get this skill. Remember you need to stay up here the whole time. The raid battle could be happening soon, don't blame us if you can't make it!"

Beat shrugged off Neku's comment, "C'mon Phones, I can't pass up a chance like this!"

Neku wanted to note that his comment was more aimed at Asuna, but he decided against it. Asuna however seemed confident, "Kirito took three days, right? I can do it in two."

Beat laughed, "hell yeah! Asuna's got the right attitude, we're gonna to get this skill in no time!"

The three talked to the man who, contrary to his age moved remarkably fast. He took away their weapons and painted whiskers on their cheeks as proof of the trial.

As Asuna wailed over the markings on her face, Beat just laughed and rubbed a finger under his nose in a confident manner.

The blond-haired boy stepped up to a rock and cracked his knuckles, "Don't sweat the small stuff Asuna, you jus' gotta go…with… the…FORCE!"

Before Rhyme could correct him on his word usage, "flow not force," Beat unleashed a punch at the boulder he stood in front of. Neku supposed Beat's STR stat would come in handy here, but the rock didn't even seem to budge at Beat's punch… at first.

After a second or so there was an almighty cracking sound and rock shattered into smaller rocks, he had not just split it, he had decimated it to bits.

The whole group stood there flabbergasted, the NPC included.

Beat laughed and struck a victory pose, "Hell yeah! That was tight!"

It did not take long after that for Asuna to get the martial arts skill as well. As soon as she recovered from her shock from Beat's performance she started to attack a boulder in a frenzy. She sent jabs, kicks, heel drops, and elbow strikes against the rock. Neku had walked off with Kirito, Argo, Rhyme and Beat to train in a field at the bottom of the mountain. About two hours later Asuna had joined them with an incredibly smug look on her face. It was certainly an impressive sight to see Asuna charge at a cow with a linear thrust, only to spin and plant her elbow squarely in its face sending it a few feet back.

Neku gave a low whistle, "Geez, with that skill you are even more terrifying than before."

Asuna flashed him a smile, "it certainly is a handy skill. Though from the way I see it, that psych skill is much more useful."

Rhyme nodded, "Asuna is right, a skill like that is pretty handy."

Neku shrugged, "Either way, how was Nezha doing? You finished pretty quickly."

Asuna shrugged, "He was punching away at a rock when I finally broke mine. Though… it didn't seem like he was making much progress."

Kirito nodded, "Yeah that is how I felt when I was trying for the skill. It took me forever to finally put a crack in the boulder I was working on."

Rhyme frowned and looked up at the hill, "I hope he succeeds."

Neku rolled his eyes, "that is up to him."

-§-

It was a bitterly cold day when the raid group lined up outside the boss room door. It had been three days since Asuna and Beat had learned the martial arts skill.

"So," Beat said as he tightened the grip on his axe, "what are we facing this time."

Neku frowned, "you do realize we talked about this yesterday at the boss meeting?"

Kirito cut him off, "We are facing 2 giant minitours, Baran the General Taurus and Nato the Colonel Taurus. The teams A-E would take on the main boss, Baran, teams F-H would take on Nato. Nato only had 4 health bars, but with lower defense it's considered more of a mid-boss. Baran is the real boss that we need to worry about, he had got 5 health bars."

The teams of A-E consisted of members from the Aincrad Liberation Squad and the Divine Dragon Alliance. The last three teams consisted of Agil and his group, who Kirito called the 'Bro Squad,' as team F, team G consisting of Kirito, Asuna, Neku, Beat, and Rhyme, and team H as the Legend Braves.

Beat paused, "Wait if we are in team G, that means…"

Neku grit his teeth, "No last attack bonus for us… again."

Asuna pointed a finger at Neku, "Well technically, Kirito got the last attack bonus last time."

Neku scoffed, "Only reason that happened was because the teams that were supposed to be taking down the boss were incompetent."

Kirito waved off his concerns, "If it is any consolation, Nato is still technically a boss, so we will still be getting a last attack bonus from that as well."

The idle chat died down as Lind, the leader of Divine Dragon Alliance stepped up to speak. Lind was the self-proclaimed successor of Diavel, hell he had even dyed his hair to be the same color as Diavel's, but Neku personally thought that Lind would never have the charisma that the former raid leader had.

As for the loudmouth from the first meeting, Kibaou, he had also gathered up members to support his own ideals, and had made his own unofficial guild, the Aincrad Liberation Squad.

"Alright everyone, we are going to be taking on the bosses today, everyone has their own roles, if we focus, we can beat this with no causalities."

Neku rolled his eyes, _"What a motivational speech, with all the charisma of a dead fish."_

"Hold on a second!"

The players all turned to the speak, who was soon identified as Kibaou. As soon as he had gotten everyone's attention, Kibaou continued, "We have at least one player here who has definitely seen the bosses pattern before, so let's hear what they have to say about it." With that said he pointed at Neku.

The headphone wearing boy frowned but spoke, "The beta test, was the beta, some or all parts could have been changed. Either way, the bosses will be using what the bull-men and minotaurs we have been fighting up till now, just more combos to their attack. Just be careful of the debuff attacks. One hit will stun you temporarily but get a second hit when you are stunned will give you the status effect [paralysis]. Anyone that got paralyzed in the boss battle in the beta died."

The party flinched at Neku's last statement. Lind however recovered fast and spoke, "Right, all right everyone! Avoid the second hit! Let's take down this boss!"

With that statement Lind pushed open the doors and the raid party charged into the room. Immediately ahead of them two large forms rose up, both holding large hammers. The raid group split up appropriately and soon the battle began. Neku privately though this fight would be easier than the first one. Sure, there had been only one boss the first time, but the Kobold sentinels made up for it in number. Plus, it was a constant stream of them until the boss was taken down. This one, there was only two bosses and after they were taken down, they didn't respawn.

"Neku switch!"

Neku was broken out of his thoughts when Kirito called out. Neku charged forward, eyes shining red, and launched a horizontal arc sword skill directly into the forehead of Colonel Nato, where a soft light seemed to be glowing. Both slashes landed critical hits dropping the health bar a by a good amount. Neku quickly backed up as the large beast started winding up for its debuff attack, Numbing Detonation.

The raid group quickly backed up before the monster swung down its hammer. The hammer struck the ground creating a shockwave, electrical sparks cascading across the floor spreading outward from the impact zone. Fortunately, everyone had, at this point, gotten out of the area of effect, so nobody was stunned. As the beast tried to heft up its hammer, the players charged back in, weapons glowing.

Neku spared a glance on how the other fight was holding up. Some people were dragging others to the side, a sign that they had been stunned, or worse paralyzed. Neku rolled his eyes as he concentrated back on his fight, he had vaguely hoped that the raid group would have had headed his one piece of advice, but he knew he should not have gotten his hopes up.

As the boss's health slowly ebbed away, the raid group grew more cautious. There was always the chance that the bosses attack pattern could change.

"Hey Neku, can I ask you something?"

Neku glanced at Rhyme before focusing back on the boss, the last bar was about to go into the red, "What?"

Rhyme looked worriedly at the two bosses, "The last boss we faced, Illfang he was a 'lord' right?"

Neku nodded, "Yeah, he was the lord of the Kobolds, so what?"

Rhyme frowned, "Then why is the main boss this time only a general?"

Neku raised an eyebrow, "I don't see how that has anything to do with- "

Neku never got to finish his statement, because at that moment, Nato's health dropped into the red. A large shaking started as a hole opened up in the middle of the boss room, then something roared.

Neku scowled and turned to see some beast slowly rising up from the ground. If Nato was as high as 10 feet, and Baran was 20, this dwarfed both of them at 30 feet tall. The name came into view, Asterios the Taurus King along with 6 HP bars.

Beat croaked, "You gotta be shittin' me yo…"

The massive black taurus turned to face the group that was fighting Baran. The king roared before breathing in. A strange light seemed to start glowing in its throat, then its mouth.

Kirito shouted, "DODGE! DODGE! DODGE!"

The group began to move but, it was far too late, Asterios breathed out and lightning shot out across the room. Neku stiffened, the move was lightning breath, one of the few elemental attacks in the game.

While fire breath was the most damaging, lightning breath had its own share of troubles. The attack happened in an instant, shooting across the room at an insane speed that would hit anything that had not moved away in time. The other problem was happening now. A majority of players were on the ground with their HP outlined in green, a paralysis effect.

Kirito shouted, "Squads F-H full assault on Nato! Do not defend, just attack! The players snapped to action and started to swarm Nato. Multicolored light shone all around the beast as players unleashed sword skill after sword skill, the HP bar plummeted before it hit zero, causing Nato to shatter in to blue shards.

Nobody paid attention to that however, the crew was already moving to face the new threat. Half the players broke off the help the victims of the lightning breath, while the others when to combat Baran. Asterios was a threat, but is slow moving body provided them time.

Baran was already down to the red zone on its last HP bar, but it had gone into a berserk state, and used Numbing Detonation any chance it got, severely slowing down progress.

Beat ran forward, axe glowing green as Baran tried to unleash another stun attack. The two attacks collided forcing both weapons to rebound.

Beat smirked and shouted, "Switch!"

Kirito, Asuna, Neku, and Rhyme charged forward, each unleashing a sword skill that tore through the boss. But Kirito and Asuna weren't done yet. As Kirito had displayed when hunting wasps, sword skills could be chained together, as long as they were from different weapon categories. Their left legs glowed blue and they simultaneously performed backflips, each hitting the monster in the chest with their attack, the martial arts sword skill, Cresent Moon. The monster was further stunned as it recoiled back from the consecutive damage. Neku's eyes gleamed and he charged forwards once more. His blade glowed a malicious green as he executed the three-slash sword skill, Sharp Nail. While it was considered a basic sword skill, the recovery time for it was much longer than the one or two hit skills and was rarely used. This time however it worked perfectly, the skill allowing him to carve three vertical slashes into the boss, causing it to call out in pain before shattering into blue shards.

Neku didn't even look at the LA bonus as he was already turning to fight the last boss. Teams F and H had finished up transporting all the paralyzed people to the sides of the battlefield where they were unlikely to get hurt. He cursed when he spotted both Kibou and Lind sitting among the paralyzed. That was why they had not called for a retreat. In paralysis you could barely whisper, let alone call for a retreat. Unfortunately, with so many down, there was no way to safely retreat with all members surviving. If the healthy players pulled back right now, all the vulnerable players would get slaughtered. There was no choice but to fight.

Neku's heart was beating a mile a minute as he raced towards Asterios. With no prior information, it would be a tough fight. His scan skill was not turning up anything useful either, he couldn't even identify the weak point, so he was left with relying on instinct. For most of the minotaur monsters, the forehead was the weakness, but considering that he could not jump thirty feet, that plan was out.

"Eat this!" Shouted Beat as he ran towards Asterios. As Beat entered the monster's attack range, the beast turned and threw a punch.

Beat swung his axe and it collided with the King's fist, causing both to rebound away, "Phones, Switch!"

Neku dashed forward, blade shining blue, and unleased a Vertical Arc against the large monster. The health bar decreased, but it was not to an amount that Neku would have liked. Kirito, Rhyme, and Asuna each struck with their own sword skills as well, but the amount that is lost was hardly significant.

Neku jumped back as the king threw a punch, "Kirito, any bright ideas?!"

The black-haired boy had a rare scowl on his face, "I don't have anything, we can only just keep its attention until the raid party recovers!"

Neku grit his teeth, "And who said we were supposed to retreat after things went south?"

Asuna dashed past him, landing a thrust on the boss' leg before retreating, "Stop complaining! Just focus on stalling this thing."

The battle raged on, the members doing what they could. Unlike the other two bosses, this monster didn't have a hammer. Unfortunately, that didn't mean it couldn't stun. Neku had no idea what attack it was called, but when its fist glowed then impacted the floor a shockwave would spread out and would stun anyone within range. Multiple players were taking large amounts of damage and retreating to down potions.

At this point, Beat was occupying the boss by mostly cancelling out skills and letting the other players tag in for sword skills. He was tiring though, the constant use of sword skills against the King's fist must have been intense.

It happened then, the king threw a punch and Beat was too late in using a sword skill to block it. He was thrown across the room and landed a fair distance away.

"Beat!" Rhyme immediately ran towards his collapsed form. Another punch made its way toward the players. Neku dashed forward and unleashed a horizontal in an attempt to stagger the beast. Unfortunately, a one-handed sword did not have as much power as a two-handed axe. Neku was sent skidding back, HP dropping down to the yellow from the attack.

"Shit," muttered Neku as he downed a potion and jumped back into the fray. Technically, he really should have fallen back towards where everyone else was healing, but they just didn't have the luxury for that.

At this point, Asuna had circled around towards the back of the Boss. With a burst of speed she approached the back of Asterios. Jumping high she planted a parallel sting, a two hit sword skill, directly into the back. The boss grunted then did something unexpected. The tail whipped up and struck the still airborne Asuna.

Asuna flew up, struck dumb by the unexpected attack. The boss whirled around and smashed a fist right into Asuna's flailing form causing her to crash harshly into the dungeon floor. Neku glanced at her health from the party readout in his peripheries. Her health was down to yellow. The boss breathed in for another lightning attack. Neku glanced at Asuna, who should have gotten up by now, but she lay there struggling to stand. Neku's heart stopped. Every time someone fell to the ground, there was a chance rolled to see if they could get back up. Asuna's roll had come up snake eyes, she had tumble status.

Neku started to run, but he would not make it. Asuna finally got to her feet, but the range of the attack was too wide for her to jump out of the way.

"Asuna jump right!"

A voice called out as a black bullet tore towards Asuna. The girl blindly followed the voices orders and jumped to the right. As the King unleashed his attack Kirito wrapped his arms around Asuna and jumped as well, trying to add to their momentum. The lightning shot out and Kirito took the brunt of the attack. They landed on the ground, Kirito's HP in the low yellow, Asuna in the red. A green border around their names indicating paralysis. The monster raised his fist and struck down.

"GAAAAH!"

A scream ripped through Neku's throat as he slashed with all his might, sword glowing a brilliant blue. A horizontal sword skill would not stop the attack, but at the very least it could prevent the two from getting killed. As expected Neku's attack did alter the boss' attack trajectory, but he was sent flying back skidding to a stop on his back next to the two players laying prone on the floor. His HP was dangerously low, and the potion's effect still had not worn off, so while he had not died, he couldn't take another one.

"N…Neku… Run…"

Kirito struggled to talk due to the paralysis. Neku breathed hard as Asterios once more breathed in, a harsh glow gathering in its throat. Neku knew that he could escape if he abandoned them. He knew that if he wanted, he could save maybe one, forsaking the other to a cruel death. He knew that nobody would blame his for either option, it was the result of the world they found themselves in. But he refused. He would not forsake anyone. If his teammates, his friends would die here, then so would he. He slowly got in a crouching position, before standing up shakily.

As he watched as the monster's mouth started to glow with a hazardous light, a small twinkling caught his eye. Against the darkness of the dungeon the shining object was not difficult to see. It glided softly upwards until it hit its apex before it descended sharply heading for the brow of the large minotaur. A sharp sound metal rang out as it struck the boss' weak point, staggering it, an explosion happened inside its throat and smoke billowed out of its nostrils and mouth signifying that the lightning breath had misfired. The glowing ring then glided back across the room and landed in the hands of the only player that had the ability to use the chakram weapon. Nezha walked in front of Neku.

Neku let out a weak laugh, "took you long enough."

Nezha nodded, "Sorry for the wait, please retreat with the others, I will hold off the boss."

Neku glanced back to see Beat and Agil already retrieving Kirito and Asuna. The orange-haired boy nodded, "Alright, give it hell."

Nezha gave a bright smile, "You can count on me."

Neku retreated back and sat down, back against a pillar. Kirito and Asuna were deposited next to him, potions already in their hands to take.

"You're an idiot." Asuna muttered as soon as she finished taking her health potion, "You would have died back there if not for Nezha."

Neku didn't have the energy to scowl, "So sorry for trying to save your life."

Asuna shook her head, "No… that isn't…" she trailed off her face saddened.

Kirito took a deep breath before speaking, "She means that you should have abandoned us when you had the chance, no point in letting three of us get killed when one of us could have escaped."

Neku was silent for a moment before he spoke, "for as long as you have known me, do you really think I would have abandoned you guys?"

Kirito gave a weak chuckle, "In the beta, you definitely would."

Neku rolled his eyes, "This isn't the beta moron."

Kirito nodded, "I know, I know…." He leaned his head back to rest on the pillar and closed his eyes, "Hey Neku, thanks."

Neku gave a weak laugh, "just don't get used to it."

Asuna gasped, "You can laugh?"

This time Neku did have the energy to scowl, "seriously Asuna?"

"I'm joking," she giggled. She then gave a him a warm smile, "thank you."

Neku just rolled his eyes and grunted, "whatever."

"Why Nekky, is that embarrassment that I detect?"

Neku groaned, closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the pillar, _"Not now…"_

Asuna gave a surprised squeak, "A…Argo?! Why are you here?"

Argo put a 'V' sign in front of her eyes and stuck out her tongue, a pose which Neku found utterly disgusting, "Why Asuna, I am anywhere that information can be found."

Neku rubbed his eyes in frustration, "Cut the crap, this place is not for an info broker like yourself."

Argo dropped the pose, "Alright, I was doing a quest in town and it lead me to find some information on the boss fight."

The three perked up as she continued, "It told of another large beast that would attack the players when the first two were weakened."  
Neku frowned, "well, that would have been nice to know before the fight."

Argo nodded solemnly, "After that I desperately turned in all the objects to find out all the info I could before storming up to the dungeon. That is when I met him waiting at the entrance." She pointed at Nezha who was currently stalling the boss.

Kirito nodded, "I see, that is why Nezha knew to throw the chakram at the boss' forehead, you told him."

Argo nodded again, "That's right, after meeting Nezha we went through the dungeon as quickly as possible to get to the boss room. I already told the two raid leaders the info I know."

Neku breathed out, "Alright, anything we need to know?"

Argo shook her head, "Nothing that you don't already know. It uses a skill called Numbing Impact that does more damage as well as stuns longer than Numbing Detonation. The eyes flash when it is going to use the lightning breath attack."

Kirito gave a small smile, "Thanks for the info. Are you charging us?"

Argo laughed, "I'll let you have this one on the house. Stay well you three." With that, the rat was gone, probably off to talk to the other players about what she had just told them.

Neku breathed out before downing another potion, "So, you guys ready to jump back in."

Asuna looked at him warily, "Isn't that kind of risky, your HP is still in the yellow."

Neku shakily stood up, "Yeah, and I just drank a potion, if I'm careful, I'll be fine"

Kirito grunted as he stood up, "famous last words."

"Kirito's right, you should rest a bit more Neku."

A new voice joined the discussion, causing the three to turn to find Rhyme and Beat walking up to them.

Beat pounded his chest, "Don't worry Phones, we got this for you, just rest for a spiel."

Rhyme giggled, "Rest for a spell, Beat."

Asuna spoke up, "No last attack bonus is going to be worth your life, heal up a little more then you can join us, ok?"

Neku wore a conflicted look on his face before sighing, "Fine, but only once I am in green, potions take forever to finish up."

The group nodded and Neku sat back down.

The rest of the boss fight became easy once Nezha arrived. Whenever the King would charge up for a move, he would throw his chakram and stagger it. With most of the moves sealed off the raid team had no trouble whittling down the last of its health. As the boss shattered into pixels the word 'Congratulations' shone brightly above them. Neku's team gathered up and shared a round of high-fives.

The group then turned to Nezha who approached them with enthusiasm.

"Nice job Mr. legendary hero," said Kirito as he gave the former blacksmith a high-five.

Nezha shook his head, but grinned all the same, "Please Kirito, it was you all that helped me get this weapon, and the skills to use it properly," tears could be seen in the corner of his eyes, "thanks to that… I was able to do something that I dreamed of doing, thank you."

Beat gave a hearty grin, "Don't mention it yo!"

"Yo, Congratulations."

The deep voice that spoke was Agil, walking up the group, but his face was solemn. He stopped in front of the group and looked down at Nezha, "you're that blacksmith, right? Why did you switch to fighting, and with that rare weapon no less?"

The celebratory air faded as the tension doubled. A group of players lined up behind Agil as he continued to speak, "You see, these guys and I, we all had an… unfortunate accident when dealing with you. Now you're here with a rare weapon, and well, we're thinking that all that blacksmithing would not be as lucrative as to get you that."

Kirito spoke, "Wait a second! I gave him that weapon, there is nothing suspicious about- "

"Kirito," Nezha spoke, "It is alright." He looked Agil directly in the eye, "It is as you expect, your weapons didn't break, I stole them and sold them."

Agil raised an eyebrow, "Can we get them back?"

Nezha shook his head.

Agil sighed and put a hand to his forehead, "and the money?"

Nezha bowed, "I used it to dine on fancy meals and stay in luxurious hotels."

"You… You little shit!" a player called out, "You screwed us over, so you could lead some sort of rich life?! We… we worked hard for those weapons… When mine shattered I thought I was done, but my friends pooled their money and resources together for a weapon and upgraded it to +3 so I could join the raid… You are wasting all our hard work just to free you, to free all of us from this prison for a meal?!"

Neku frowned, things weren't looking good for Nezha, people were enraged at what he did, but there wasn't much he could do. Nezha had chosen to walk this path, as unwilling as he was to do so.

"Wait, please forgive him."

It was then the Legend Braves stepped in and diffused the situation. They had been the ones to ask Nezha to help them upgrade their own equipment. They all got on the floor and bowed deeply to the group that had been scammed. The people looked around, unsure of what to say. Then Orlando stood up and faced Argo, "Lady Argo, please help us with something."

-§-

"Well it was certainly a creative solution," muttered Neku as he, Asuna, and Kirito slowly climbed up the stairs to the next floor.

Kirito nodded, "Ah, to auction off the pieces of the Legend Braves armor and weapons and give the proceeds back to the scammed players really helped lessen the tension."

Asuna giggled, "I am surprised you guys didn't stay there, there was some pretty good stuff.

Neku shook his head, "All of that stuff was for a tank or support role, Kirito and I are speed class warriors, none of that stuff would have done any good for us."

Kirito smiled, "I just hope Beat gets something out of it. He was eyeing that chest plate."

Neku shrugged, "Good for him if he gets it."

The two nodded and the three kept chatting away as they climbed, mentally preparing themselves for the rest of the floors of Aincrad.

-§-

Well, it has been three months since my last update, and by some miracle I had some free time for the last 2 weekends so I was able to hammer out a chapter. I am surprised people keep finding this story even with my incredible failure to update regularly. Either way, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Review if you would like, while I will say that it does help motivation, I cannot promise another chapter anytime soon. Either way, leave a review of things you liked or things you thought could have been done better. I enjoy constructive criticism, and it helps me be a better writer as a result (hopefully). If you want to leave suggestions , that is up you. While I may take some of them, I have very solid idea where I am headed and what the Psych skill will bring to the table, so please don't feel bad if I do not use your idea.


	6. Elf War

Sword Art Online and The World Ends with You are not owned by me, but this is a work of my own creation. Please do not take any ideas without permission.

-§-

The sun shone brightly above their heads as Asuna, Kirito, and Neku opened the door to the third floor. Surrounded by trees and other foliage, the third floor was a place of lush forests and other greenery. Neku frowned as he pushed a branch out of his way so he could see what was ahead, "I never liked this floor, too much nature for my taste."

Kirito laughed, "I recall you saying the same thing in the beta, but you have to admit, it does go well with the theme of this floor.

"You're talking about the elf quests right?" snorted Neku as they walked down the path, "I never did it, seemed like too much of a hassle."

Kirito choked a bit, "Seriously?! That is a lot of experience, items and col down the drain! You really missed out."

"Doesn't matter," Neku muttered while waving his hand in dismissal, "I am going to do it now anyway, since we need all the levels we can get, no harm done."

Asuna looked between them before clearing her throat, drawing their attention, "Will someone tell me what's going on? Elf quest?"

Kirito at least had the decency to look embarrassed; he scratched the back of his head and gave a sheepish grin. Neku just rolled his eyes.

Kirito pointed to the door they had just opened. There has been an inscription on it and now that it had been opened it was much easier to see. Two elves could be seen, one on each door, brandishing swords.

"This floor is the first time a 'story' really comes to Aincrad. You know how all the quests so far have been random one-time throw-away quests, such as collecting an item or defeating a monster?"

Asuna nodded, prompting Kirito to continue, "Well, if we start this quest, it leads to a gigantic chain quest that ranges from here to the ninth floor."

Asuna's eyes widened, "ninth!?"

Kirito nodded, "Yeah, since we only got to the tenth floor in the beta, we don't know about anything else as large as this, but this is certainly something we cannot skip."

Asuna nodded fiercely before looking at Neku, "you're coming with us, right?"

Neku nodded, "Yeah, but we will be depending on Kirito for this one, I have no idea what happens in the quest line."

Asuna smiled before turning back to Kirito, "Alright! Let's go!"

Neku frowned, "Hold on, we still need to restock supplies before we go anywhere. That last boss fight was tough and I am low on potions."

Kirito put his hands up in a placating manner, "Calm down, we are only doing the first part of the elf quest, we can head to town right after."

Neku raised an eyebrow, "I don't see why we can't resupply before going, but if you insist, lead the way."

Kirito nodded and started to lead the group in to the forest, "It will take a while to get to the point we need to, so for now just keep an eye out for treants."

Asuna tilted her head to the side, "treants?'

Neku sighed, "treants, in other words, living tree monsters. Their strike attacks do a large amount of damage so be careful. Also, you cannot sneak up behind them, unlike normal monsters with eyes, treants are trees with lingering malice, at least, according to the bestiary description in game, so it can sense whatever is attacking from any direction and move accordingly."

Kirito looked back and Neku, "you're certainly well informed. I thought you didn't like this floor."

Neku shrugged, "It is because I didn't like it that I studied up on it as much as possible. I like to be prepared…" his voice trailed off as he looked ahead of them before drawing his blade, "heads up, we have company."

The other two turned to find the aforementioned monster, a treant, slowly walking towards them, the indicator a bright pink.

Kirito reached back and unsheathed his sword. Asuna reached for her waist and pulled out her rapier.

"Alright, not bad for a tutorial fight, Asuna, watch its movements and try to attack when able." Kirito said as he started to run towards the opponent. Asuna nodded and followed close behind.

Kirito's sword exploded in blue light as he activated a sword skill. He then flew towards the monster striking it before retreating, barely dodging the thick vine it had swung.

Asuna burst forwards, rapier tucked in close to her body. The blade glowed as she lashed out with the double hitting 'parallel sting' sword skill. However, the monster was already swinging another vine around to strike Asuna's side. She wouldn't be able to move out of the way due to the post-motion delay.

Kirito moved to block the strike, but it was not necessary. Asana's leg shone a brilliant color and she jumped activating the 'crescent moon' martial arts skill. She flipped backwards, deftly avoiding the vine as it passed harmlessly beneath her, as well as kicking the treant back a few meters. She righted herself mid-air and pulled her rapier back once more, allowing it to glow before thrusting forward with a 'linear' skill hitting the treant in the middle of its body. The living tree let out a shriek before bursting into small blue shards.

Asuna landed and turned with a smile on her face, "how'd I do?"

Kirito clapped his hands, "bravo, that was well executed."

Neku raised an eyebrow, "While it was certainly… flashy, it got the job done."

Asuna frowned at Neku, "would it kill you just to compliment someone without being so critical?'

Before Neku could answer, Kirito cut in, "No time to argue you two, let's keep going."

The three headed further in, killing enemies as they came. Soon enough, the surrounding started to get filled with fog, making traversing the terrain even more difficult.

"What's with this fog?" asked Asuna as she dodged a branched that seemed to have come out of nowhere.

"I think the game explanation is magic that they elves can use," said Kirito as he brushed some leaves aside, "I really can't remember, I was more focused on the quest than the actual explanation."

About an hour of trailblazing later, Kirito spoke up, "alright, keep your ears peeled, we are listening for a sound now, should be metal clashing on metal."

Neku frowned before reaching up and tapping his headphones, bringing up the command menu for his music and promptly turned if off. The group stood and listened for a while before Neku's eyes flashed to the right, "This way," he motioned before walking away.

As the trio walked, the sounds got louder and louder, while the fog thinned out. Finally, they came upon a clearing. In the center two figures were fighting fervently. One was a male elf, his face chiseled for a rugged, handsome look. His clothes were predominantly green. The other was a female elf, her skin darker than her male counterpart. Her face and features gave her a 'cool beauty' kind of vibe. The two seemed even in strength, no side holding the advantage for too long. But the most important part was that each of them had an exclamation mark above their head, meaning that they were the start of a quest.

Neku frowned, "Two quest markers? How does that work?"

Kirito laughed, "Yeah, I was confused the first time too, what you do is level your sword at the opponent of the side we want to pick. So if we chose the dark elf side, we point our weapons at the forest elf, but you can only choose one side, and the other side becomes unplayable. Also there are no redos, the side you pick is the side you stay on, no switching midway."

Asuna nodded, "I see, so which side should we choose?"

"I already played through it once," Kirito shrugged, "I'll let you guys decide."

Asuna turned to Neku, "thoughts?"

"Well, to do this as efficiently as possible, we should probably go with the side that Kirito chose last time," Neku said as he kept his eyes on the two dueling elves, "his knowledge will be more beneficial."

Asuna nodded, "I agree, then I guess we will join the dark elf side."

Kirito nodded, "alright, then we can… wait when did I say which side I joined?"

Neku turned and gave Kirito a knowing look, "you didn't, but based on your personality, we knew what you would prefer."

"Now hold on just a second" Kirito sputtered out, "I chose the dark elf side because of… the dark clothing!"

Neku and Asuna looked at each other before looking back at Kirito with doubtful looks, "that would have been a lot more convincing if you didn't pause."

Kirito scowled, "Get off my case! Let's just get this over with!" With that said the black-cloaked boy ran into the clearing followed by the others. The two elves that had been locked in combat jumped back from each other and turned to face the newcomers.

"Humans, here in the forest?" exclaimed the male elf, looking at them in confusion.

The dark elf woman shouted, "Turn back now! This is not your fight!"

The trio looked at each other before all drawing their weapons and pointing them at the forest elf. The yellow indicator that indicated it was a non-hostile NPC started to flash a dark red, indicating that it would soon become hostile. The forest elf's face darkened, "Oh? You dare side with the disgusting dark elf and defy the Forest Elves of Kales'Oh?"

Asuna gave a wicked grin, "bring it on!"

The indicator became blood red. The male elf roared, "So be it! I will kill you all!"

"Alright guys," Kirito whispered, "There is one thing I forgot to mention, we can't win this fight."

Neku and Asuna looked at him incredulously. "We are going to die here?!" hissed Asuna, "You idiot!"

Kirito shook his head, "No, once we get down to half health our ally will use a secret technique to end the battle. All you need to do is focus on defense."

"Focus on defense huh?" said Neku as he closed his menu and his eyes became red, "Just between us though, I never liked losing."

Like that the battle began, it was a four on one fight but even then it was difficult. The forest elf had to have been at least level 17 and while the dark elf was fine, the two level 14 boys and one level 13 girl were doing the best they could. The forest elf hit hard, alarmingly dealing an eighth of Asuna's full HP when she blocked one of his swings instead of dodged. He also used a shield, which caught most of their attacks, dealing negligible damage to him as a result.

They did have one advantage however. Neku had identified the weak point. Time and time again he would go after it mercilessly, racking up critical hits. However, the forest elf had caught on, and fiercely guarded itself whenever Neku switched in. The forest elf was now had around a fourth of its HP left.

Neku jumped back after clashing with the forest elf, allowing the dark elf to switch in. He glanced at Kirito and Asuna who were both trying to catch their breath. "Alright you two, I have a plan, but I need your help with it."

"What's up? I could go for anything right now," muttered Asuna as she inhaled a large gulp of air.

"That's why I said focus on defense," said Kirito dryly, "Anyway, what do you have planned?"

"The weak point is the middle of his chest," Neku said, motioning to his own chest as a point of reference, "I need you two to hit it with a sword skill then chain your martial arts skill, that should be enough damage to take it down."

Asuna frowned, "But he has a shield, he will just block it."

Neku shook his head, "I'll use a two-hit sword skill to deflect his sword and shield and create an opening.

Kirito nodded, "Got it, so we need to follow you, and take advantage of that vulnerability interval."

Neku nodded, "yeah, you two in?" The two nodded and Neku smiled, "Alright, let's do this."

Neku dashed forward, quickly approaching the two elves locked in combat. The dark elf looked back for a second before parrying a blow from the forest elf and moving aside. Neku's sword started to glow a harsh blue as he swung his blade forward. The elf struggled to bring the shield up in time.

*clang*

The sword impacted the side of the shield forcing it away and to the right, Neku's attack continued and struck the sword forcing it away as well. Asuna and Kirito appeared, flanking either side of him. Asuna struck first, with the speed of a shooting star, stabbing into the elf's chest. A second later Kirito slashed downward hitting the weak point as well. Both of them then gathered energy into their fists and shouted as they punched forward, striking the elf's chest and forcing him back.

"Guahhh!" the elf let out a groan as the damage was dealt, but as the health bar dropped it did not go to zero. Rebalancing himself, the elf looked up only to find that Neku held his sword high, glowing with a bright red light.

Neku smirked, "Game over," and with that struck three consecutive blows on the elf.

The forest elf slumped to the ground, "I…Impossible…how… did I lose to such… inferior…beings." With those last words said, he shattered into blue shards, leaving a bag of leaves in his place. Immediately the three players got a level up indication and well as a hefty sum of col as well as a few rare items.

"We… we won?" asked Kirito blankly as he stared at the bag of leaves at the ground.

Neku raised an eyebrow, "yes? I mean we were trying to win right?"

Kirito shook head, "No, but this has never happened before."

Neku frowned, "well the elf didn't use her secret technique, but what is so bad about that?"

Kirito shook his head, "No, that isn't what… I'll explain it later."

Asuna and Neku looked at each other and shrugged before turning to the dark elf warrior that was approaching them. They moved aside as she knelt down and picked up the small bag of leaves.

She then turned and smiled at them, "thank you for the help brave human warriors, with this," she motioned to the bag of leaves in her hand, "we should be able to keep the sanctuary safe."

The three nodded and she dutifully placed the small leaf bag into a pouch on her waist. She then looked up to them, "If you would not mind, would you like to help me deliver this back to our base camp?" Another exclamation mark appeared over her head.

Kirito gave a sigh of relief, "thank goodness, the quest is still going through as normal…"

"You sure are worried about this quest," muttered Neku, "Is it really that important?"

"You two should really focus," scolded Asuna as she gave a slight huff. Turning to the dark elf, Asuna gave a beaming smile, "It would be our pleasure!"

Neku and Kirito sighed, such a vague answer would never get the NPC to properly respond. Just as Kirito was going to give a more definite response, the exclamation mark above her head became a question mark, meaning that the quest had been accepted. The dark elf brought a fist up to her chest in a proud salute, "My name is Kizmel of the Lyusula Knights, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, if you could, please tell me your names as well." The three told her their names, and after a while she was able to pronounce them with few flaws.

"Well then," Kizmel said with a smile, "Shall we depart?"

Neku's party menu blinked in the corner of his eye and a fourth health bar was added, reading 'Kizmel.'

The four started out, walking at an easy pace through the forest. While the fog was back, Kizmel seemed to navigate with ease. Neku fell into step with Kirito, "So, what is the whole problem with the fight back there, why were you so surprised?

Kirito sighed, "In that fight, when we all get to half health, our ally should have harnessed the power of the sacred tree and would kill themselves and their opponent. Then we would have picked up that bag of leaves, the 'first key' as it's called, and deliver it to the base camp ourselves."

Neku frowned, "I fail to see what the problem is then, we just beat the forest elf quick enough that the dark elf didn't need to die, so what?"

Kirito shook his head, "you don't understand… I have gone through that scenario at least four times, and they ended the same each time, the dark elf, Kizmel, sacrificing herself. Plus this quest has been done hundreds of time by people in the beta, and not once has anyone reported that their elf survived, I doubt Argo even knows that this kind of scenario is possible."

Neku rolled his eyes, "So we may be deviating from your beta tester knowledge just a bit. There have been a lot of changes since the beta, this is probably no different."

Kirito was silent, before nodding, "yeah, your right, guess I am focusing on something that really isn't a big deal. Speaking of differences though, you see how Kizmel reacted to Asuna?"

"Yeah, I did notice that," Neku said as he furrowed his brows, "Such a vague response should not have gotten the NPC to respond like it did, maybe they beefed up the AI from beta to actual launch?"

Kirito shrugged, "it's possible, but there is no way to really know."

After five minutes of walking, the fog lifted and the group finally came upon the dark elf base camp. High above them flags flapped in the wind, bearing the sigil of the dark elves. The elves guarding the base stopped them, but after a few words from Kizmel let them through with little resistance.

Kirito nodded at the surrounding tents, "There is a whole bunch of things here all the way from a dining tent to a blacksmith."

"You are correct, we do have all sorts of facilities here," Kizmel said as she turned to face them. She then wore a confused expression, "but how come you know of such things?"

Kirito made a choking sound, and Neku sighed before speaking, "don't mind him Kizmel, he was just pointing out the obvious." Neku motioned to the blacksmithing forge sign, "he could also smell the scent of food in the air," Neku took an experimental whiff, "I have to admit it does seem rather appetizing."

Kizmel smiled, "you can smell the food's scent from here? Human's sense of smell must be rather amazing. Well, before anything, we should return the first key to the commander."

Neku nodded and Kizmel continued to walk. Kirito hesitantly came to his side, "thanks for the save."

Neku frowned, "that's odd… your comment was not clearly directed at her, yet she still responded to it, like a normal human would."

Kirito's eyes widened, "your right…that isn't supposed to happen."

"Kizmel's reactions are so realistic that I would hazard that a staff member would be playing as her," Neku said as he watched Kizmel walk ahead of them, "but that is impossible, since…" Neku trailed off, crossing his arms in thought.

"hey! You two are going to be left behind if you guys don't hurry up!"

The two were broken out of their thoughts by their resident rapier user who was looking at them with annoyance.

Kirito called out a 'sorry!' before running to catch up, Neku followed along at a more sedated pace, choosing to set the thoughts aside for the moment.

Soon after, they were face to face with the leader of the camp. "Humans, thank you for helping Kizmel defeat the forest elf," the commander said, "we do not know what would have happened if the first key had been taken by our enemies."

Kizmel took the key out of her pouch and placed it at the desk the commander. He nodded in appreciation and stored the key behind him in a safe.

The commander turned to speak to them again, "I am sorry ask you of this Kizmel, but a scout that was supposed to report back has gone missing, he could hold valuable intelligence on the forest elves. I need you to go search for him the first thing tomorrow." He then looked at the players, "if you would be so kind, could also assist Kizmel in this task?"

Kirito responded, "yes, we would be happy to help."

The commander smiled, "Excellent, your assistance is greatly appreciated. Kizmel, you are to protect these human warriors to your upmost during this time."

The purple haired female knight gave a salute, "I swear on my knighthood to the Pagoda Knights Brigade that I will not let them fall so long as I am present!"

The commander nodded, "Now, it is getting late, please rest here for tonight. You are welcome to use any one of our many facilities. Kizmel, if you would, please show them around."

Kizmel nodded and motioned them to follow her, so the group trotted after her as she escorted them through the camp. They arrived at a large tent, peaking inside revealed numerous soft furs strewn across the floor to be used as bedding and blankets, a furnace sat in the center, giving off a gentle heat to keep the place warm at night.

"This is my tent," Kizmel said as she went inside, "But it is far too big for me alone, you three can stay in here with me tonight if you wish."

Asuna frowned, "Then we are dividing the tent in half, guys get that half, and Kizmel and I will sleep on this half."

Neku shrugged, "fine with me, I just want to go to eat something and go to bed… it has been a long day…"

"I wanted to take a bath too…" Asuna groaned, "But now we are stranded out here in the woods."

Kizmel tilted her head to the side, "If you would like a bath, there is one here in the camp."

Asuna brightened up immediately, "There is a bath here?!"

Kizmel nodded, "of course, we are not uncivilized elves. While it may not be as grand as baths seen in castles and forts, a suitable one has been provided for us."

Asuna started walking towards the exit, "then I will go take a bath, see you later!"

Kirito spoke up, "I wouldn't do that if I were you…"

Asuna whirled around, "Why not?"

"Well," started Kirito, "the bath is in the bathing tent, so there is only a flap…no locks." Asuna flinched at that. Kirito shook his head, "And there is only one bathing tent, meaning that there is mixed bathing, so a guy or a girl could walk in at anytime."

Asuna looked downtrodden, "my…my bath…"

Neku rolled his eyes, he would have made the argument that they were in a virtual world, with virtual bodies that did not sweat or pick up dirt, but he doubted that would help the situation.

Asuna suddenly perked up, "oh… well I guess I can still have a bath if I do that."

The two boys looked at her as she slowly looked at them, a smile on her lips, but the smile did not bode good tidings.

-§-

"You just had to tell her that there was no lock," Neku said as he sat outside of the bathing tent, standing guard.

Kirito crossed his arms, "She would have figured it out anyway."

Neku threw his hands up in the air, "yeah! But thanks to you, we have to sit out here until she finishes!"

A soft laugh interrupted their argument. The two looked over to find Kizmel looking at the two, with a bemused expression on her face.

"You two are very close to argue about trivial things," Kizmel said as she approached, "it reminds me of the arguments my sister and I would have when we were kids."

Kirito raised an eyebrow, "you have a sister?"

Kizmel gave a very sad smile then, so much so that Neku for a moment truly believed that this was no NPC, but an elf living in a fantasy world. "Had," she said quietly.

Kirito flinched, "Oh, I'm so sorry… I didn't…"

Kizmel shook her head, "It's alright, you didn't know. She was a bright child, that was always smiling, how better to remember her than to smile myself?" With that she gave them a warm smile, then proceed to enter the bathing tent causing Asuna to scream.

-§-

Neku had never been deep sleeper. He had more than once woken up to a car passing by his house when had forgotten to close the windows. So, he was not surprised that he awoke at 3:30 in the morning when Kirito gave a light snore and murmured something about one more helping of food. What did surprise him was he was well-rested, something he had not felt in a long time. He knew that if he was not tired he would not fall asleep again quickly. It was for that reason he decided to take a nightly stroll around the camp. Quietly, he strode out of the tent, not to wake his other sleeping companions and slowly walked around the camp that was now absent of noise. He circled around the tents and through a portion of forest to find a large field in front of him, many swords scattered about stabbed in the ground. He could tell that they had been there long, since vines grew all over them. There was one sword that was new however, off in the distance, beneath a lone tree. He knew it was a recent placement since no vines clung to its form. He walked up to it and inspected it.

"That is my sister's grave."

Neku looked up to find Kizmel slowly approaching. He looked down at the sword again before speaking, "I don't know elvish customs, so I don't know how you bury your dead, but in human culture, this is a rather poor gravestone."

Kizmel smiled, "you are right, this is a poor grave. Elves live a very long time, so when we pass, a ceremony is held, with an exuberant grave created for them. But now are times of war, and we don't have the time to bury them in traditional fashion, these are the best we can do."

"I see," Neku said. He knelt down and brought his hands together. He sat for a sometime before standing back up. Turning to Kizmel, he discovered she had a surprised expression on her face.

Neku raised an eyebrow, "Something wrong?"

Kizmel shook her head, "I will admit that I have not interacted with the human race all too much, but from what I have heard about them and from what I have experienced, I always thought that they were selfish, stubborn, and rude. But here you are, praying for my sister, though you do not know her face or name." Kizmel sat down against the tree, and motioned Neku to sit down as well. When he complied, she held out a waterskin to him, "would you like a drink? It's Moontear wine, it was my sister's favorite."

Neku frowned, he had thought of mentioning that he was a minor and should not have any alcoholic drinks, but he realized that there was no point arguing about age. So, he took the skin, lifted it up to his lips, and took a sip. A burning, acrid taste assaulted him and he almost spat it out on reflex, but eventually he was able to force it down. He held it back out to her while muttering, "I don't know how people can drink this stuff."

Kizmel gave a soft laugh, "I agree with you, I hear that wine is more of an acquired taste, plus most draughts dulls the senses, which makes fighting more difficult." She then stood up and poured the rest of the contents onto the sword, "I was supposed to celebrate her recent promotion, so I snuck this wine out to drink with her, but sadly, now this is the best I can do."

Neku gave a hum of agreement before looking outward towards the field of swords again, or that had been his plan, if he had not seen a poorly concealed rapier user and beta tester hiding near the tree line. Neku sighed, "Kizmel, I'll be right back, it seems nobody is getting any sleep tonight."

Neku walked to their hiding place and frowned at what he saw, Asuna's embarrassed looking face from being caught, and Kirito's sly grin.

"You know," Neku said as he put his hands in his pockets, "If you guys wanted to join the conversation, you were more than welcome to walk up."

Kirito's grin got a bit wider, "Oh, but Neku, you had such a nice atmosphere going, I wouldn't want to ruin it. It doesn't matter that you are going after an NPC, I will support your feelings all the way."

Neku's eyes took on a dangerous glint, "you know, Argo was asking me for some dirt on you the other day. I just might tell her about the 'poisonous mushroom' incident in the beta.

Kirito paled considerably, "Haha…I get it, no more joking around… I will reflect on it."

Asuna looked at both of them confused, "poisonous mushroom incident?"

Kirito shook his head, "nope, nothing, there is no need to read further into this, end of conversation, let's see how Kizmel's doing." With that Kirito started power walking back to the tree where Kizmel still sat. Asuna hurried after him leaving Neku to slowly bring up the rear.

Kizmel was wearing a bemused expression when they finally all gathered, "hello Kirito, Asuna, couldn't sleep?"

Kirito rubbed his head with a sheepish smile, "Yeah, I was tossing and turning, so when I realized both you and Neku were gone, I went out to find you."

Asuna glared at Kirito, "And when this bumbling idiot went out to find you, he made so much noise that I woke up as well."

Neku rolled his eyes, "So when you found us you decided to spy on us instead of coming up to talk?'

"W…well we were, but," Asuna looked away and blushed a bit, "we didn't want to ruin the mood."

Neku covered his face with his hand and sighed with disappointment, "you too?"

Asuna crossed her arms and huffed, "How were we supposed to know?"

Neku gave her a look that simply read, _"Seriously?"_

Kizmel chuckled, "Sorry Asuna, but to pursue a romantic relationship of any sort, that would require the queen's permission."

Kirito interrupted, trying to change the topic, "So, what were you guys talking about anyway?"

Kizmel simply pointed at the sword, "We were talking about my sister, this is her grave."

Kirito and Asuna looked surprised, but recovered quickly. Both knelt and paid their respects as well. When they had finished, Asuna turned to Kizmel, "Kizmel? If it isn't too much trouble, can you tell me more about your sister?"

Kizmel smiled, "let's see, my sister's name was Tinel, and she was a herbalist, creating potions and medicine from the forest around us." And the three players continued to listen to the elf as she spoke, of days long past.

-§-

As a little tip of the hat to the official release of the Volume 5 English progressive novel, I decided to release a chapter. Can't say too much on it though, it really is a just an introductory chapter for the 3rd floor. Hopefully the 5th novel will spark my creativity, but that will be seen in time. Leave a review if you liked it or not, constructive criticism is always appreciated. Thank you to everyone that reviewed last time as well.

And yes, for those who caught it, that was a reference to Tales of Symphonia, albeit a small and insignificant one.


	7. Dungeon Woes

Sword Art Online and The World Ends with You are not owned by me, but this is a work of my own creation. Please do not take any ideas without permission.

-§-

The second day on the third floor started early as three players and one elf walked through the forest. They were going to the Spider cave to try and find the where-a-bouts of the missing scout.

"So Kizmel," asked Asuna as the morning mist swirled around them, "what exactly is this fog? Magic?"

Kizmel smiled, "This is the forest sinking charm, used to hide us from our enemies. Magic is much more powerful however, think of our charms as a slight afterglow of the once powerful magics we had in days of old."

"Save the history lesson for later," Neku said as he drew his blade, "We got company." True to his word, large spiders started to appear from the mist, scurrying towards them. The other members readied their blades and dashed forwards.

Neku's eyes glowed red as he aimed for the abdomen of the Thicket Spiders, their weak point. He slashed through them like a hot knife through butter. Kizmel had no problems obliterating anything in her path, all the spiders that attacked her met their end with the swiftest of slashes. Kirito and Asuna teamed up with frightening efficiency, taking out a large number of them by switching and chaining sword skills and martial arts skills together.

After the one-sided fight was over, the group continued on their way forward until they finally reached the spider nest. Before they entered however, Kizmel stopped them.

"Something is wrong," she muttered as she narrowed her eyes and looked inside, "But I cannot tell what."

Neku raised an eyebrow and glanced at Kirito for a hint. Unfortunately, Kirito shrugged helplessly.

"How do you know something is wrong Kizmel?" asked Asuna as she looked worryingly into the dark abyss.

The dark elf shook her head, "the mana in this cave used to flow in and out freely, like a river, but now it has become blocked and stagnated, like something is interfering with the flow."

Just then a spider walked out of the cave and the group flinched. The normal spider should have been brown and hairy, with red eyes. However, this one seemed to be a pallet swap of black, large purple eyes and fangs twice as large as normal.

Kirito readied his sword, "That thing definitely wasn't in the beta…"

Neku nodded, "yeah, never seen one of those things before."

Asuna drew her sword, "Whether or not it was in the beta is not a problem, we need to get through this cave either way, so we need to fight!" With those words she ran forward, sword at the ready.

Kirito and Neku ran behind her ready for any opening that she would create. The spider hissed and lashed out at Asuna who dodged and thrust forward.

The unexpected happened however, there a grating sound as sword met flesh, and flesh won. The sword slipped off the body like it was made of metal.

The spider lashed out with one of its legs, and Asuna immediately parried. A second later her wind flurret was blown out of her hands and she jumped back cradling her wrist in pain. Her health bar had dropped a large amount.

Kirito was next as his sword glowed blue and he slashed twice at the monster. The health bar lost one pixel of health. The spider whirled around and swung again, but the former beta tester dodged with ease and struck again, only to be met with the same result.

"Guh! It is like hitting a brick wall!" shouted Kirito as he jumped back. Neku ran forward, dodging two swipes and swung his sword down on the body. The blade skated across the body and Neku dodged quickly to the side to avoid the fangs. Neku backed up once more, before identifying the weak point. He charged in, his sword ready to strike. The spider tried to impale him with one of its legs, but he dodged. His sword ignited red and he allowed the sword skill to carry him forward, directly at the weak point, hoping to have better luck than his last attempt. Surprisingly, it worked much better than he hoped, the spider collapsed from the hit and immediately burst into blue shards.

Kirito looked at him incredulously, "How the heck did you pull that off?! I barely scratched the thing and you took it down with a single sword skill!"

Asuna and Kizmel walked up clearly as baffled as Kirito. Neku scratched his head, then shrugged, deciding to go with blunt honesty, "I'll be truthful… I have no idea, I only identified the weak point, then attacked. After I hit it, it went down like a ton of bricks."

Asuna frowned, "So you can only kill it by knowing the weak point? That's ridiculous! How are we supposed to go through the cave like this?"

Kizmel frowned, "This cave has multiple entrances. Perhaps these spiders are only part of this section. I will go investigate each opening to see if any of them can be entered safely."

Kirito nodded, "Please do, we'll wait here and see if we can figure anything out." The dark elf gave a salute before dashing away.

Kirito furrowed his brow, "I say that, but this is not a good situation, how is anyone going to get through this cave?"

The other two players turned to him, both raising an eyebrow, Kirito explained, "This is a public dungeon, and is the centered around many of the quests on this floor. I assume the two guilds right now are trying to complete the guild creation quest, but they need to go through here to do so. If we are having trouble, I am almost positive that everyone else is having trouble too. The two guild leaders are going to come complaining if we don't think of something. There must be a gimmick, or a clue to help us."

"Hee hee hee, you technically are correct, but it will take a bit more than just a clue to get you on the right track."

The three players turned to find a young boy walking up to them. He had platinum-colored wavy hair, and a thin frame.

"Who are you?" said Neku as he crossed his arms, "And what do you know about this problem?"

The boy held up his hands, "One thing at a time, how about we introduce ourselves? I will start, the name is Joshua, what about you?"

Joshua pointed at each of them, and they told them their names in turn.

"Well now," Joshua said after each of them had introduced themselves, "let's get on the main topic at hand, shall we? Tell me, what is different about this cave, that we have yet to experience in the game so far?"

Asuna frowned, "Uh, the monsters resistant to damage?"

Joshua nodded, "While you are correct, there is something else."

The three players looked at each other, but none of them had any suggestions. Joshua shrugged, "How about listening for a change?"

The three frowned, but listened to the noise of the forest. There were birds chirping, the sound of wind passing through the trees, rustling the leaves as it came through. But all of these sounds were normal, what you would expect in a VRMMORPG. Neku tapped his head phones and turned off his music, and that is when it hit him.

"The BMG here… it was produced by CAT."

His two other party members looked at him confused, but Joshua gave three claps, "Precisely, this place is the first to use a soundtrack composed by CAT."

Asuna looked at Neku, "CAT?"

Neku nodded, "I am sure you have heard of it, even in passing, but CAT is a large producer of many things, from electronic devices to art. They're most well known, however, for their music. There was an agreement between CAT and SAO, that promised at least a dozen songs would be put into the new game. There was even a collaboration event for people to get hyped up about it."

Joshua nodded, "congratulations on the headphones by the way, I didn't think I would get to meet the winner."

Neku frowned, "How did you know about that? The advertisements only stated that the winner would get to be a beta tester. It is only when I got my copy, did I figure out my headphones were part of the package."

"Ah, I suppose you would be interested in that," Joshua said as he tapped his finger to his chin, "Let's just say I know CAT personally and heard a bit about the SAO project before the official launch."

Kirito shook his head, "This is all very interesting, but what do you know about this weird phenomenon, and what does this have to do with the background music playing?"

"So impatient," Joshua said with a shrug, "fine, we can cut the idle chatter for now, to summarize what I know, apparently CAT songs are played in areas with special dungeons."

Kirito and Neku frowned, "Special dungeons?"

Joshua nodded, "yes, I remember a conversation between CAT and myself a few days before SAO launched. CAT had mentioned that apparently the music provided to SAO would be a certain indicator that specified whether or not the place would be a special dungeon."

"What makes it special?" asked Asuna as she crossed her arms in annoyance, "All we have are super tough monsters that nobody can beat."

Joshua shrugged, "that I do not know, it isn't like Kayaba told CAT everything about the game. I am only telling you what I know. But I think I now understand why there are CAT songs playing in the special dungeons."

Neku frowned, "What do you mean?"

Joshua sighed, "Come now, you mean you still don't realize it? These dungeons were created specifically for you, Neku."

"Me?" Neku asked, "care to elaborate?"

Joshua smirked, "why isn't it obvious? Only you out of all of your companions could defeat those monsters, clearly the system has recognized you as the only one that can proceed into these special dungeons. Perhaps it is because of the headphones you are wearing? These dungeons must have some sort of connection to you, the event winner," Joshua then shrugged, "of course, I could also be jumping to conclusions and this is some bug of some sort, but there is only one way to find out, and that doesn't involve me, see you later."

With a casual wave the boy started to walk away, Neku called out, "hold on a second! I still have questions for you!"

Neku dashed after him, but the fog swallowed his form quicker than expected and soon enough, Neku lost track of him. When Neku came back, he found that Kizmel had also returned from her search.

When Neku rejoined to the group, Kizmel reported what she had found, "All the other entrances were no good. It seems our mission has gotten much more difficult. Did you three have any breakthroughs while I was gone?"

Kirito and Asuna looked at Neku, who could only sigh in resignation, "yeah, we do have one plan of action. I can go in alone."

Kizmel looked surprised, "while that may be an option, I would have to oppose such a foolhardy plan, our best bet would be to retreat and strategize for a better outcome.

Neku nodded, "In normal circumstances, I would agree with you, that would be wiser that me going in alone, however, it seems like this is a special case."

Kizmel tilted her head to the side, "Special case?"

Neku nodded, "Right now, we believe that these headphones allow me to kill those spiders, it may be a long shot, but right now it is all we have. I am willing to take the risk."

Kizmel looked conflicted, "alright, if you believe this is the only way, then I won't stop you, come back if you need any support."

Neku nodded to Kizmel before turning to Asuna and Kirito, "Kirito, anything in there that I need to look out for?"

Kirito bit his fingernail, a rare sign of trepidation, "yeah, there is a large spider in there that can shoot webs, which inflicts a slow debuff. I wanted to tackle this dungeon together because of it. Just avoid getting hit at all costs, if you do get hit… well let's hope you don't and leave it at that."

Neku winced, "Alright, thanks for the info. If I don't come out in an hour, head back to base camp. Keep an eye on my health bar from your peripheries, but do not come after me under any circumstance. If the worst happens…well, you might have to talk to other players to see if there is another way around this mess…"

Asuna frowned, "This seems really risky. Isn't there another method?"

Neku shrugged, "If there was, there wouldn't be a need for me to do this. Well, see you guys later." With that Neku walked inside the cave.

-§-

Neku waved the torch back on forth, keeping an eye out for any more spiders. He would admit that the torch was annoying, preferring to keep his other hand open, it was hard to initiate sword skills while trying to use the torch for light. Fortunately, his encounters so far had been pretty easy, since a normal sword swing to the weak point would kill them no problem. As he wandered through aimlessly, he opened any chests that he came across, there was no point going through again if he could collect all the treasure now.

As he continued through, he started analyzing the current situation he was dealing with. While the idea of 'special dungeons' for one player was a tantalizing idea, it clearly did not add up in the long run. Now, Neku did admit that he had no idea why Akihiko Kayaba had initially created the death game, but by purposely trapping people inside, it was reasoned that he wanted people to clear all 100 floors of Aincrad, and not all die on the third floor of the game. So what was the cause? That was still unknown. At least the music alerted people of the 'special dungeon' before they waltzed in and got slaughtered, from what Joshua had mentioned, but that had been one instance, and he would need more occurrences before he was convinced that the correlation was true.

A violent shriek emitted from just ahead, forcing Neku to put his musings on the backburner. Neku slowly peeked around the corner and scowled at what he saw. A large spider sat in the center of a large cavern, webs hanging everywhere. The eyes glowed with malicious intent and its overly large fangs dripped with venom. But the thing that intrigued Neku was that there was not one weak point, but many, strewn across the body.

Neku narrowed his eyes, multiple weak points could mean one of two things, One: there were multiple areas he could hit to score critical hits. While that would be nice, he doubted it would be that easy, so that left Two: the weak point indicators were all spots he had to hit, to defeat it. Neku clicked his tongue in annoyance, before looking around the area once more. The webs on the wall were not immortal objects, but rather the attack Kirito had warned him about. He put the torch near it and the flames ate away at them with vigor. But why were there webs in the first place? There had been no enemy for the spider to attack, yet they hung around, as if something was here to provoke the spider. Shaking his head to clear it of random thoughts he turned back and headed towards the entrance once more.

At least that had been the plan. The spider suddenly shrieked shot webs at him. Neku rolled to the side and dodged the spray, but when he looked up the pathway was entirely blocked up by the web. Neku held up the torch to burn it away, but then suddenly pulled back. The black spiders that had been wandering around had all congregated behind the web, waiting. If Neku burned down the web, and attempted to escape, he would need to run from not only a boss-class monster, but many smaller monsters that hit ridiculously hard. Neku turned around and readied himself, if running wasn't an option, then he would just have to fight.

-§-

Two hours later, Neku collapsed on the ground breathing harshly, in front of him the spider crashed the ground, crying out one last time before it burst into blue shards. He took several deep breaths to calm his nerves. If he had not been a beta tester, he most certainly would have died, and that fact alone made him shiver. He had always kept a large safety margin to reduce the risk of death, but in this scenario, he learned that he had escaped the ultimate end by the skin of his teeth, for a majority of the fight, his health had stayed below 50%. It had been a rough fight, the spider not only was strong, but also aggressively fast. The web attack that Kirito had informed him about was also present, presenting a constant threat to his survival, but the most surprising thing he encountered happened when the boss had gotten down to the last health bar. The spider could breathe fire. The first blast alone had caught him by surprise and got his health into the red. He was lucky he did not get the burn status, since that would have killed him.

He slowly opened his menu and took out another potion and downed the vile tasting liquid. As his HP slowly restored back from red, he scrolled through the items he had obtained, hopefully the fight would have been worth it. His eyes narrowed at a few odd eccentricities that were present. An odd metal was present, called rare metal. He had never seen this item while in the beta, but considering it was a boss drop, it did not mean that it had never existed before. He also had other crafting items, like spider silk and spider venom fang. The most interesting item though was something simply called 'Secret Report 1.' He tapped it and brought out a small piece of parchment, however, it was much too dark in the cave to read it, so he threw it back in his inventory.

"Well, I guess I should go back… I will probably get an earful from Asuna though," muttered Neku as he slowly stood up. Just then a window popped up in front of him.

It simply read:

Congratulations for clearing the first trial. The 'Psych skill has gained a new skill. You may now use Pyrokinesis.

Neku's cocked his brow in confusion. He opened his menu and scrolled to the skill section, tapping quickly, the submenu displayed the current skills he had. To his surprise the Psych skill's proficiency points had increased by a large amount, now sitting over 200. He pressed the 'Psych skill' button and opened the subskill menu. There, sitting innocently, was the Pyrokinesis skill. Tapping it he slowly read the activation requirements. He looked around to see if there was anything he could use this skill on, when his eyes landed on the web wall that had trapped him here. He walked over and looked beyond the wall to see if any spiders remained and was relieved to find the path clear. He held out his hand, aiming at the webs in his way and spoke, "Burn."

His hand seemed to glow with what seemed pure energy and the webs ignited, flames greedily eating away at the fragile silk. The entrance was cleared in seconds. The glow from his hand faded slowly as the flames died out. He opened and closed it a few times before reaching out again, "Burn." This time, no flames came forth at his command.

"A recharge time perhaps?" muttered Neku as he started to walk forwards. It would make sense, considering all known attack skills had a post-motion delay associated with them. This one did not freeze you in place, but instead could not be activated continuously. More testing would be required. As he walked, a spider came up to him, but this was a normal 'cave spider' that had been encountered in the beta. Neku took out his blade and after identifying the weak point gave a slash, but it only earned him a normal critical hit, and the spider retaliated, swiping at him with a leg. Neku held out his hand again, "burn."

The flames answered his call and the spider erupted into flames, it screeched violently and ran around. Neku took a stance and activated a sword skill, causing him to dash forward and pierce the spider, causing it to fly forward and hit the wall before bursting into shards. The light effect however revealed something he had not seen before, a small glint tuck away at the far end of the cave. He relit his torch and approached. Within webs and grass was a small badge similar to one that Kizmel wore.

Neku sighed, "Guess I know what happened to the scout, better get this out of here…" Then without further delay he headed out of the cave.

-§-

"You are incredibly lucky to be alive you know," said Asuna when Neku finally sat down. The three players were relaxing in Kizmel's tent. After Neku had come back, his three companions had rushed over to see him. After confirming his safety, Neku had produced the scout's pin, which allowed them to finish off the second mission in the Elf Quest. Kizmel had been called away on other duties so the three decided to retire in Kizmel's tent and talk about what Neku had experienced.

Kirito picked up the conversation, "Yeah, my heart stopped a few times when we were watching your life bar, it took quite a few dips during that time."

Neku could only nod, "Yeah, I was caught off guard and was forced to fight the cave boss… I surprised you guys did not come in after me after you saw my HP falling like that."

Kirito and Asuna looking at each other before replying, "Actually we did… but we couldn't get to you…"

Neku scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, "Why? Were the monsters too tough?"

The both shook their heads, Kirito explained, "We could run past the monsters fine… it is just that as soon as we got a few feet in, we were assaulted by terrible headaches."

"Headaches?" Neku asked, "So suddenly?"

Asuna nodded nervously, "Yeah, when we got in the music just seemed to pound in our ears, and we were forced to retreat because of it."

Neku crossed his arms, "a headache stopped you from coming to my aid?"

Kirito shook his head, "you don't understand, we really tried, but the further we tired to move, the harder it got for us. I almost blacked out, until Asuna pulled me back."

Neku's skepticism faded as he said, "then it is good you guys didn't come after me."

Asuna frowned, "Well, are you going to tell us what happened in there?"

Neku put up a hand to shush her, "I'll explain everything."

So, he talked about what he had experienced. The odd spiders, the boss, and the items he got at the end.

"Rare metal?" muttered Kirito as Neku went over the mysterious drops that now resided in his inventory, "I've never heard about that, can you show it to me?"

Neku nodded, "yeah, I never heard about it either." He swiftly brought up his menu and soon the rare metal crafting material materialized. It was a hunk of brown rock, but beautiful golden crystals stuck out of it at odd angles.

"Wow," Asuna said, sparkles in her eyes, "it's pretty."

Neku nodded, "yeah, never saw something like this before, I suppose it should fetch a good price to the right buyer, but… I might just use it for myself."

Neku held out his Anneal Blade and Kirito winced. In SAO, the durability of a blade was the maximum amount it could be used before it broke and became scrap metal. As the sword was used it would first dull in shine, eventually picking up buffs and scrapes before showing dangerous signs of breaking like chipping and cracking. Neku's blade was in terrible shape, cracks ran across the blade, with multiple chips across either edge.

"You might want to get that repaired stat." said Kirito as he took a closer look, "It seems like it will fall apart in a strong gust."

Neku gave a tired sigh, "I was actually worried that it would break as I was backtracking out of the cave, but a least the dungeon is normal again."

Kirito gave a resolute nod, "yeah, glad the problem was fixed, though if what that Joshua character says is true, there will be more of these 'special dungeons.'"

Asuna gave a huff of annoyance, "hey! You still haven't told us about all the drops you got!"

Neku narrowed his eyes, "I don't recall you telling me about all the drops you have ever gotten…" his eyes widened as he recalled something, "though I suppose you two should see this."

With that he put the rare metal back in his inventory and took out a rolled-up piece of parchment.

Asuna frowned, clearly unimpressed, "That's it? Just some paper?"

Kirito's eyes, however, were full of excitement, "Is that a skill that we can learn, or a start of a quest?"

"I really don't know," Neku said as he started to unroll it, "the name of the item is 'Secret Report 1.'"

The two scrunched their eyebrows and looked over Neku's shoulders as he finished unrolling it and held it up for them to see. It read:

 _I write this report with growing excitement. It is not often that such an occurrence happens that it captures my imagination. Truly this game will have ramifications that will be seen far after it ends, and it will even affect_ _ **The Game**_ _._

 _I must once again thank The_ _ **Producer**_ _for calling my attention to Kayaba's intentions. Kayaba, or rather, the_ _ **Creator**_ _, has created his own world, similar to the_ _ **Composer and his UG**_ _. In it his laws are absolute and he can create new laws on a whim. Unfortunately, no matter how brilliant the Creator is, he is_ _ **not of the same plane**_ _and therefore cannot counteract our plans. He cannot possibly conceive the methods we are capable of using, and therefore his plans have been thrown into disarray. He did not expect the effects of_ _ **imprinting**_ _to warp his own world to such an extent. Now that the effects have come to fruition, I fervently await for the results._

Kirito frowned, "Alright… I'll ask the stupid question, what does this mean?"

Neku scowled, "looks like someone wrote a fanfiction and a pretty deluded on at that."

Asuna sighed, "Well, there goes the hope of it being anything useful."

Neku nodded, "Welp, it is taking up inventory space, I'll just destroy it." He swiftly tapped the parchment, calling up the options menu, and scrolled down to the 'destroy' button. Tapping it once, it the window asked if Neku was sure he wanted to destroy it. Tapping the circle Neku was surprised to find that that a purple text box appear in front of him which read, Immortal Object.

Neku frowned, "Your telling me this piece of paper with garbage written on it is an Immortal Object?!"

Kirito held up his hands, "Calm down… That must mean that it is important right?"

Neku sighed, "I guess… but what does it mean?"

Asuna shrugged, "Who knows, maybe it will be for a story quest later on?"

Neku scratched his head, "Who knows, but for now, it has been a rough day, I just want to get some rest."

Kirito nodded, "I advise you do so, we can look at weapon options tomorrow.

"Thanks," Neku muttered as he laid down. As his consciousness faded, he heard the two start to argue about bathing habits, but honestly, he didn't care. It was good to get some rest after a long day.

-§-

Well, I was able to grind out a chapter before the new year. Finally, there is some going on behind the scenes with the TWEWY universe, though it may take a while for those changes to have major ramifications on the world of SAO. Leave a review of things you liked or things you thought could have been done better. I enjoy constructive criticism, and it helps me be a better writer as a result.


	8. The Meaning of Courage

Sword Art Online and The World Ends with You are not owned by me, but this is a work of my own creation. Please do not take any ideas without permission.

§

Kirito let out a big yawn, causing Asuna to scold him about etiquette. It was the morning of the next day and while Neku felt well rested, due to going to bed earlier than usual, Kirito looked pretty tired.

Neku frowned, "Up late last night?"

"yeah," Kirito said as he rubbed his eyes, "I went to meet up with Argo to discuss what was happening with the clearing teams."

"Let me guess," Neku said, "they are complaining that they can't get through the spider cave."

Kirito scratched the back of his head, "yeah, pretty much, there is a strategy meeting scheduled later today for a collaborative effort to get through. Though they might cut that part out if Argo told them about how it has returned to normal. There was also going to be some information on clearing all later floors."

Neku nodded, "Then I guess we'll have to attend that. I assume you would have told Argo everything I told you?"

"Really doesn't matter," Kirito said with a shrug, "Argo seems really intent on interviewing you later."

"She better get used to disappointment," Neku said, rolling his eyes, "I am not telling her anything more than necessary."

Kirito smirked, "Really? She is going to pester you until you do."

Neku scoffed, "I can hide here in the elf camp for as much time as possible if need be, this is an instance after all."

"Instance?" Asuna asked, butting into their conversation, "what does that mean?"

Kirito frowned, trying to think of how to word it, "An instance is a place that is created for only you and your party."

Neku sighed, "That is why we haven't seen anyone else doing the dark elf quest side of the story, they may be in the same location, but not the same 'instance' as us."

"I think I get it," Asuna said before brightening up, "Oh! So does that mean our Kizmel is just for us?"

Kirito shook his head, "Kizmel is a mold character, doomed to endlessly respawn at that clearing again and again, for every party that comes forward to do the quest."

Asuna looked sad at that, "oh…"

Neku shrugged, "According to Kirito, nobody has gotten through that fight with either elf living, so in a sense, this Kizmel is just really our Kizmel."

"What about me?"

A gentle voice caused the party to turn. Kizmel walked up and gave a graceful wave, "Sorry for delaying you, I was receiving the next orders from the commander."

Asuna shook her head, "No, that's ok Kizmel, what do we need to do next?"

"The commander would like for us to gather some flowers," Kizmel said in a quiet voice, "the scout that died was a member of his family, so he would like some flowers to be placed near his grave."

Kirito nodded, "Alright, but first Kizmel, the three of us need to head back to the human town. Once we come back we can go out."

"I understand," Kizmel stated, "Once you are ready come and get me, I will be waiting."

Kizmel gave a wave before starting to walk away, her form disappearing into a tent. Kirito smiled, "Well then, let's get-"

"Hold on," Neku cut in, "I need to repair my weapon, it was damaged severely in the last battle I had."

Kirito scratched his head, "Oh right, I forgot about that… then let's head to the blacksmith's."

The group headed over to the tent with an anvil sign out front. As they opened the flap the dark elf blacksmith looked up and asked, "How may I help you?"

A window opened in front of Neku, asking him a multitude of questions like if he wanted to forge, upgrade, or repair a weapon. He quickly tapped forge, causing another window to open, prompting him to add material to forge, as well as the type of weapon he wanted to create. He selected the one-handed sword option and went to add the rare metals that he had gotten the previous day.

-Error! Material is unable to be used by NPC Blacksmiths!-

Neku frowned, "That is oddly specific…"

Kirito frowned as he read the prompt, "Huh, that is odd, but there isn't much you can do about it right now."

Neku nodded and with a few taps, he closed the forging menu and brought up the repairs window instead. After going through the options, the elf held out his hands to receive his badly damaged Anneal Blade +6. He warmed it in the forge and soon started pounding on it, then after pounding on it ten times, held it up to a grinding wheel for around ten seconds before returning the polished sword. Neku took it gratefully and slid it in the sheath behind him.

"Well, that could have gone better," muttered Neku as he turned to talk with his companions, "It seems this 'rare metal' stuff is useless for now."

Kirito rubbed his chin, "I wonder why it needs to be a player to use the material. Just like that Secret Report 1, maybe it is a quest forging item that you can only use later on."  
Neku raised an eyebrow, "I guess… but right now it is just wasting space in my inventory, weight that I don't need."

Asuna sighed, "Are we done here?"

Kirito sighed, "No, not yet, Asuna how long do you intend to use that rapier?"

Asuna covered her weapon with both her hands, "Huh? The entire-"

Neku rolled his eyes, "Please don't tell me what you were about to say was 'the entire time we are in this game.' Your choice of armament will only last you until the end of this floor. There are rapiers being sold in the main town of the next floor are stronger than that. You have maxed out the efficiency by making it a +5, you have used it well, but now that use is up. You need to upgrade in order to survive."

Asuna looked stunned, "But… we did so much just to get it back on the second floor, now I am just going to throw it away?"

Neku frowned, "This is like having a flip phone when a smart phone comes out, you should have no problem upgrading."

Asuna cringed at Neku's words, "Ye…yeah, but… I've become attached to it…"

Neku brought a hand to his face and shook his head. This was an RPG. Who actually got attached to their weapons so much that they did not change them? Who was determined enough to use the wooden stick you get at the beginning of a game to the end? But he could understand Asuna's feelings to a degree. While he had played a few RPGs, this was her first, and it was a VMMORPG at that. She herself, not a character on screen, had put in a lot of effort to get the Wind Flurret. Plus, the effort in raising it to +5 and the whole weapon stealing incident must have strengthened the affection she had for it.

Neku sighed, "I get where you are coming from, but we need to be strong, strong enough to survive."

Kirito held up a hand, "Calm down Neku, while you are right and she will eventually need to change her sword, there is another option available to her."

Asuna looked at Kirito as the black-haired boy continued, "we can melt down our weapons to form ingots and use those ingots to make a new blade. While it may not be the same weapon, it will carry its 'soul' per say. Your partner will still be beside you, even if not in the same form."

Asuna's eyes sparkled from Kirito's words and Neku knew she had believed him, and therefore kept his mouth shut as she slowly stepped forward and presented her rapier to the blacksmith, who took it with surprising reverence.

The elf placed the rapier into the forge which flashed as it ate away at the rapier. Soon the sword glowed condensed into a small ingot which the elf carefully extracted with some tongs. Asuna, eyes still trained on her sword turned ingot held out both hands to either side of her, and simply whispered "luck buff…"

Kirito and Neku looked at each other. Neku would have been more than ok with leaving her hand hanging there, but Kirito gave him a look. Neku sighed before hooking two fingers around her pinky, Kirito did the same on the other side. Asuna gave a smile at each of them. Just then the elf started to hammer on the ingot. Ten clear strikes resounded inside the tent. The ingot glowed brightly, and its form elongated. Soon the bright light faded and there sitting on the anvil was a beautiful rapier. The elf picked it up and handed over to Asuna, who accepted it gratefully.

Asuna opened her menu and took a look at it, "The name is the Chivalrous rapier. The attack has improved dramatically. Max upgrade attempts is 15."

Kirito choked a bit, "15?!"

Asuna looked at him confused, "Why? Is that good?"

Neku nodded, "Good? No, the term to use here would be outstanding, a weapon with so many upgrade attempts hadn't been seen this early in the beta. Weapons bought on this floor have a max upgrade attempt of 3. You certainly have a jewel there."

Asuna held out the rapier and examined it once more before smiling and holding it against herself, "It may be different, but it is still the same sword."

Neku was never one for theatrics. The idea of transferring a soul/spirit of an in-game item to the next form was ridiculous. There was no way that it was actually possible. But as Asuna held it against herself, the weapon seemed to glow, if only for a second, to say hello once again to its owner. Neku slowly reached back and touched the handle of his anneal blade. He had always thought that it was just a piece of data, and he would exchange it as soon as he could. But, during that entire spider fight, it had held strong, even when it chipped and cracked, it still retained its shape, to keep him safe. Maybe, just maybe, Neku would take the same path too.

"Well, then, you probably should upgrade it before we get going," said Kirito as Asuna officially equipped the weapon.

Asuna frowned, "But I don't have any of the materials necessary."

Kirito opened his menu and soon a shiny, rectangular plate of metal appeared in his palm, "These plates can be used to upgrade a weapon as long as it is below +10. Furthermore, they can raise the percentage of success to ninety percent." He looked at both of them, "there are enough here to raise our Anneal blades to +8 and your sword to +5."

Neku frowned, "Where did you get those?"

Kirito smiled, "One of the bosses dropped it in the last raid battle."

"And you are letting us use them?" Neku asked as he raised an eyebrow, "aren't you generous?"

Asuna stuck out her tongue at Neku, "Sure he is, unlike a certain someone I know."

"Really?" Neku said as he crossed his arms, "I certainly remember sharing a cake with some people, eh Ms. Luck Buff?"

Asuna blushed, "Oh yeah."

Kirito shook his head, "anyway, we should upgrade our weapons now, the meeting is in the afternoon so we can go around town for a while doing quests until the meeting. Afterword we can come back here and continue the elf quest, sound good?"

Both of the other party members nodded. Soon enough the last weapon was upgraded and handed back to its owner. Neku slid his blade back and turned to his companions, "alright, let's go."

-§-

There were many ways to earn experience points in SAO, but it mostly boiled down to two general categories. One was to grind out levels by fighting monsters. Players would wander out into the wilderness and fight for an extended period of time ranging from a few hours for the casual players, to days for the more hardcore combatants. Doing this provided a stable accruement of EXP as well as col and other drops from the enemies that could be kept or sold by the discretion of the player. The other source to gain EXP was mainly done through quests. While these would provide fewer material items than slaughtering the local flora and fauna for hours on end, and the experience points that you would earn would be less, a quest's EXP worth would be substantially easier than just mindless killing, and you would get to experience a small amount of 'story,'

Kirito had always been part of the hunting for EXP camp for as long as he had played MMORPGs. While quests could give you some substantial items for use, he had always believed that the most efficient option was to head out and kill monsters until your fingers were raw from clicking the mouse one to many times. He would still do quests, especially the long campaigns, but the story had never really stuck with him. It was more for those bonuses at the end than anything else. Neku's way of thinking, however, was slowly converting him to the idea that doing as many quests as possible was not a bad idea.

They had arrived in town early in the morning and started doing quests, and Kirito had assumed that they wouldn't finish a majority of them before the meeting. But as the allotted time for the raid meeting approached, the three slowly walked to the gathering hall, a majority of the quests for the town done and nearly a level up for all three of them.

"I knew you had a good memory," muttered Kirito as he walked beside Neku, "but I am surprised you knew everything we had to do in this village, I thought we would have to go to Argo first to get a list of the quests available."

Neku shrugged, "It's nothing to brag about, I memorized them since I knew I would be doing it again, the drops we collected while we were killing monsters during the elf quest apply to the town quests too, so I factored that into consideration as well, simple really."

Kirito muttered something that sounded like, 'if only it were that simple,' but Neku was already opening the door to the meeting hall. Inside a bunch of players were already crowded around. They looked up to see who had entered and scowled when they recognized who it was. Neku rolled his eyes but said nothing. The three then spotted a small blond girl who was waving enthusiastically at them. It was Rhyme, who had taken a seat at the far end of the hall. Beat was sitting next to her and when he noticed the group he hopped up and started waving as well.

The three walked over and exchanged greetings. Rhyme smiled, "What have you three been up to?"

"The elf quest," Kirito said as he took a seat, "We are on the third quest."

Rhyme nodded, "Ah! Beat and I just started that, what side did you pick?"

Asuna smiled, "Obviously the dark elf."

Rhyme smiled, "Us too, it is a shame he had to die."

Asuna turned to her companions and gave them a knowing look before letting out a giggle, but Neku frowned, something was bothering him.

"You said 'he,' correct?" Neku asked Rhyme.

Rhyme frowned but nodded all the same, "yes, while he did look a bit feminine, it was obviously a guy. Why wasn't yours also a guy?"

Neku shook his head, "Ours was a female… the system must just randomly selects a mold and uses that as a base."

Rhyme nodded, "I see… Oh! Beat why don't you tell them what you got?"

Beat pounded his chest, "Oh right! I got something at the audition!"

Rhyme giggled, "Auction."

Beat nodded, "Right, anyway, that sweet breastplate is now mine!"

Kirito smiled, "Congrats Beat, I knew you had it in you."

"Wait," Neku said as he crossed he arms, "that breastplate was pretty heavy, are you sure haven't sacrificed your speed?"

Beat grinned, "you're worrying too much Phones, I'm fine."

Neku rolled his eyes and let the 'Phones' comment slide by.

Shortly after Neku and Asuna took their seats the meeting began. Lind, the leader of the Divine Dragon Knights took the floor while Kibou, the leader of the Aincrad Liberation Squad sat behind him.

"Everyone, thank you for coming," said Lind as he looked around, "we are calling this meeting to alert everyone that both guilds have been officially created. The Divine Dragon Knights are willing to accept anyone in, as long as you are level 10."

"You just need to be level 9 to join the ALS!" called out Kibou, causing Lind to glare at him.

The blue-haired guild leader cleared his throat and continued, "The two guilds are planning to use each other as motivations to help clear the floors faster, so all are welcome to join, however there are some exceptions to this rule."

With that he turned towards Neku's group, "Kirito and Asuna, you two are top tier players, so your recruitment is considered special. You two may not join the same guild."

Kirito furrowed his brow, while Asuna outright frowned. Lind continued, "if you were to join the same guild, they would become unbalanced, please understand but this is what the leaders of both guilds decided. Meanwhile, Neku." Neku looked up at Lind with a glare so hard that he flinched, nevertheless the man continued, "Your beta knowledge is formidable, our guilds agreed that if you joined either side, they would monopolize your knowledge therefore, until floor 10, you are asked to not join either side."

Neku snorted, _"Just a nice way to say neither of us want you."_

Kirito raised his hand, "Are you saying that we need to be in one of your two guilds to participate in the raids?"

Lind shook his head, "that is not the case. Both guilds realize that we do not have enough man power to take on a boss, anyone that is strong enough is allowed in."

Several more questions were asked that Neku didn't really care about. Soon enough the meeting was adjourned with encouragement from both guilds to join their ranks. Multiple players started to step up, forming lines in front of each leader.

Neku stood up, "well that was a waste of time, want to head back to the base camp?"

"Yeah," said Kirito as he stood up as well, "the next few quests are easy, so we should finish them before the end of the day."

The three started to walk to the door when a call came out from behind them, "Neku, if you don't mind, I have some questions for you."

Neku glanced back to find Argo with a mischievous grin on her face, "Kirito told me the gist of it, but I want to hear the full spider cave story from you."

Neku crossed his arms, "Alright, I'll tell you."

Argo was taken aback, "Wow... I expected a lot more resistance. Well, where do you want to talk about it?"

Neku rolled his eyes, "this isn't for free. I'll tell you want happened, but in return you need to do me a favor."

Argo tapped her chin in thought, "Depends on the favor Neku, you may owe me more after I hear your request."

Neku scoffed, "And if my story is worth more than my favor?"

Argo laughed, "Don't be silly, that could never happen, because after all, words are cheap."

-§-

The hotels in the main city of the third floor were constructed into the trees themselves. Rooms could reach as high as 400 feet and the views were breathtaking. Asuna looked out the window with stars in her eyes, looking at all that she could see. Neither Argo nor Neku were there for the view however. Argo sat on the couch writing furiously everything that Neku said. Neku sat in a chair across from her. Kirito had retired to a separate room to get some rest.

Neku was finishing up his story, "So the spider boss finally collapsed, and I get a load of materials."

"What type of materials?" asked Argo, pencil waiting anxiously on paper.

Neku frowned, "Some crafting materials like spider silk. The main two things though were these." He opened his menu and soon enough two things materialized in his hands, he set them down on the table, "The paper scroll is something called 'Secret Report 1', though I wouldn't get your hopes up, it is just a bunch of nonsense. The metal is called 'rare metal,' it is a crafting material, but can only be used to forge weapons by human players."

Argo gave a hum of acknowledgement before picking up the paper and reading the report. After her eyes scanned through the message she started to snicker, "wow, was this report written by an eight- grader? Geez, why didn't you just throw this out?"

Neku motioned, "Be my guest."

Argo rolled her eyes, "Geez Neku, I don't want to be throwing out your trash for you, next time take care of your own messes," with that, she brought up the command menu and quickly tapped the 'destroy' button. The familiar purple hexagon appeared and the sound effect rang out declaring that it was a immortal object. Argo was taken aback, "Oh, I can see why you didn't destroy it."

"Kirito thought that it could come up in a later event," Neku said as he took the paper from her and put it back on the table, "either way, I have no choice to hang on to it until then."

Argo nodded in agreement, "That sounds about right, tell me when you get more info about it."

"I'll think about it," Neku said as he shrugged, "now about the favor I asked you about, it concerns the rare metal."

Argo furrowed her brows in confusion but urged Neku to continue, "I need you to learn as much as possible about this. I will give you a sample, so ask people with the analyze skill, blacksmiths, merchants, your entire network. Tell me if there has been a metal like this before in the beta."

Argo frowned, "Why are you so interested in a forging material? Something special happen in there?"

Neku nodded, "I never have heard of a crafting material that only players can use to forge weapons or armor. Why this one is specifically for only player crafters is odd."

"I guess…" Argo said, looking at the metal, "But not many skills are high tier right now, I don't think I can get much more information that you already know."

Neku shrugged, "just telling me whether or not there was a material like that before will tell me plenty."

Argo shrugged, "Alright, if that is all your request amounts to, I don't have any problems with doing it free of charge."

Neku nodded, before opening up his menu and placing the items back into his storage. He then opened another window and shot Argo a trading request which she promptly accepted. A few seconds later Neku was one rare metal lighter. Argo stood up and gave Neku a toothy smile, "nice doing business with you Nekky!"

Neku's eye twitched dangerously, but he reined in his usual retort, instead saying, "Whatever, tell me what you find out on a later date, Rat."

Argo gave a mischievous laugh, "I know." With that, the small girl waved and quickly exited the room.

Asuna turned after a while and sat down on the couch, Neku, who had been fiddling with his menu, looked up at her, "Ah, sorry, we should probably get going. I will go wake Kirito and-"

"We can let him sleep a bit," Asuna responded suddenly, "I wanted to ask you something, if that is fine with you."

Neku raised an eyebrow. He had never had a one on one conversation with their resident rapier user. The most of their communication had been either snarking at each other or agreeing that Kirito once again had made a fool of himself.

Nevertheless, Neku leaned back and said, "I certainly don't mind, I can't claim to know the answer, nor can I say that I will answer truthfully."

Asuna gave him a wry smile, "Always so wary..." She breathed in, as if to steady herself, before asking, "Hey, how do you fight so fearlessly?"

Neku's expression morphed into one of confusion, "Fearlessly?"

Asuna gave a small nod before continuing, "Back when you were in the spider cave, halfway through your HP dipped into the yellow zone and it never went back into the green. It even entered the red zone multiple times during the fight. Yet when you came back to us, you were none worse for wear, you were calm, collected as if it had been a regular monster killing quest instead of a boss monster."

Her voice wavered a bit, "down on the second floor, when we were fighting the Asterios the Taurus King, and Kirito and I were laying on the floor paralyzed, I was terrified. I couldn't move, and death was closing in on us. But not only did you deflect the attack that would have ended us, you stood by us in what would have been our final moments. At the time I thought, 'this is the meaning of fearlessness.'"

Neku hesitated to remind her that she had called him an idiot after he had saved them. He leaned back and crossed his arms. Closing his eyes, he said, "I don't know about fearlessness, but there is one thing that drives me. Determination to get out of here."

Asuna frowned, "We all are trying to get out of here, that isn't really-"

Neku shook his head, "Of course everyone wants to get out of here. But we have different ways to show it. Think about the people still in the starting city, slowly wasting away, waiting for an outcome that could take years. Then there's us, the front liners, who are out here fighting everyday to get stronger. We both have the same will, to escape from this virtual prison, but only one side is putting in some effort."

Neku looked Asuna in the eyes, "When we were trapped that day, so long ago, I had two options, Fight or cower in fear. I steeled myself, and chose the former, and swore to get out of here alive. I don't go back on my decisions, no matter what."

Asuna looked at Neku silently before talking so quietly that Neku had to stain to hear, "Then why did you try to save us?"

Neku raised his eyebrow, "Huh?"

"If you wanted to survive no matter what, why did you risk yourself down on the second floor?" Asuna said as she looked at the floor, "You stood in front of us, even when we would all die, you would have gone back on your word, then why-"

"If I may be so bold, I believe it is because he considers you all to be friends."

Neku and Asuna quickly looked around the room but couldn't find anyone.

Asuna frowned, "huh?"

There was a sound of rustling cloth and a hole seemed to open up before them, out of it came a head of purple hair, dark skin, and pointed ears. Soon enough the elite level elf Kizmel stood in front of them.

Neku did a double take and Asuna just screamed in surprise. The dark elf gave them a smile before looking around, "This is a nice abode you have managed to acquire, though as rude as I may sound, I prefer to keep my bed on the ground."

"Ki-Kizmel?!" Asuna stuttered, "What are you doing here?"

"It is my duty," Kizmel said as she smiled, "I have sworn to protect you until we part ways." Neku was about to respond when the door further in swung open, and Kirito jumped out, presumably woken by Asuna's scream.

"Asuna! What's- Ki- Kizmel!? What are you doing here?" Kirito stuttered frantically.

"Ah Kirito," Kizmel turned as she answered him, "Since you three were called off to an important meeting, I followed along. I was wondering how human civilization functioned after getting to know all of you, so I figured that I could have a look around. I apologize for coming in unannounced however." It seemed Kirito could only blankly stare at the odd scene in front of him, so Neku took control of the situation.

"Kizmel, it is nice to see you again, we were just finishing us here, shall we go back and gather some flowers for the offering?"

"What about your conversation with Asuna?" asked Kizmel, "I apologize for interrupting, but I thought that giving my input on the situation was ness-"

"Asuna and I can continue this conversation later," Neku said, cutting her off smoothly, "For now we should get back to the elf camp." Kizmel looked unconvinced at Neku's words but merely nodded.

"Then I shall meet you outside the city, if you will excuse me." With those words, Kizmel spread out her cloak and disappeared from view.

"What was she doing here?" asked Kirito after the group sat there for a minute in silence.

"I really have no idea," Neku sighed, "maybe it is more of that unpredictable AI stuff that we have been experiencing as of late."

"I mean, it could have been that she really was just interested in human civilization, right?" asked Asuna as she looked between the two of them. Neku and Kirito both looked at her, Kirito with a sympathetic look and Neku with an exasperated one. Asuna blushed, "Just because she is an AI doesn't mean she isn't human… or elf..."

"Either way," Kirito said as he brought the subject back on track, "we should exit town and meet up with Kizmel. I want to get to the sixth quest before the end of the day."

"Then we should get going," said Neku as he opened the door.

-§-

The quests that they had to do afterwards were simpler than the ones before. In the quest Flower Offering, they had to defeat a large plant monster to collect a flower from its corpse to use. This is where Asuna's new sword shone. Her attacks before were damaging, but Neku and Kirito had been the main attackers, considering their one-handed swords had higher attack values. Now, her sword boasted more attack than the two of theirs, and she mercilessly slaughtered anything in her path.

"Maybe I should get my sword reforged from the dark elf blacksmith," Kirito muttered as Asuna landed the last hit and the monster exploded into blue shards, "If all the swords he makes are that good I would be set for another three floors."

"I wouldn't recommend it," Neku replied as he scrolled slowly through the monster kill rewards window, "you just upgraded your sword to +8. No sense destroying all of that on a mere chance."

"I know, but it still would be useful information to know that the blacksmith in the elf quest could make higher tier equipment," said Kirito, "Only if we could test it out more. I wish I had some spare weapons for experimentation."

"What is he going on about?" asked Asuna as she walked up, "he is giving one of those 'beta tester' looks again." As Kirito sputtered indignantly, Neku spoke.

"He was wondering about the success rate of the dark elf blacksmith for creating higher tier equipment like your rapier." Neku explained, "We only have your success to go by, so we were wondering how to run more trials."

"He is good at what he does, but I wouldn't expect a result like Asuna's rapier too often," the voice caused them to all turn to Kizmel who gave them a smile, "if you are hoping for success like Asuna's weapon, I would have to dissuade you."

Neku and Kirito glanced at each other before both nodding at Kizmel's statement. Normally the two former beta testers would have ignored Kizmel's statement as flower text, but considering Kizmel's AI the probability that she was speaking the truth was high. The group headed back to the base and turned in the flower. A short ceremony was held and soon after they were tasked with finding another scout. However, this time the scout was alive and after an hour or two, the group were able to find and rescue the battered soldier. Unfortunately, however as dictated by the questline, the scout that they had rescued had been a forest elf in disguise. Even worse the enemy had stealthily stolen the jade key, so the group set out once more with dark elf wolf handlers to try and track them down. When they finally found the location, it was getting dark out, so they doubled back to the camp, exhausted but content with everything that had happened today. As was now common, Neku and Kirito sat outside the bathing tent, playing guard duty as Asuna took her bath. Fortunately, Asuna must have been hungry since she wrapped up her bathing time in a surprisingly quick manner.

"Ahh, that felt nice," Asuna said as she walked out of the tent, large smile on her face.

"Should we get something to eat?" asked Neku as he slowly stood up.

"Actually, you two can go on ahead," Kirito said as he pulled back the flap to the bath tent, "I'm going to take a quick dip." Neku raised an eyebrow but decided to say nothing in favor of heading to the dining tent, Asuna following close behind. After arriving, the two sat down and started to wait for their last wayward member, deciding to order once he finally showed up. Minutes passed by in comfortable silence, before it was broken by Asuna.

"Hey, about our conversation before, do you want to continue it?" Neku looked at the girl across from him before sighing.

"I don't see why not, where were we? Why I am so reckless or something?" Asuna pouted.

"Not recklessness, your courage."

"Ah," Neku said as he leaned back and closed his eyes, "Right, I remember now." Neku silently mused at her question. Why did he fight so doggedly, even when the situation seemed hopeless? The obvious answer would be that he didn't want to die. But that applied to almost everyone in the world, so that would not suffice as a legitimate answer, at least not in Asuna's eyes. So, what was it that drove him to move his body, when all was dire? Determination to keep his promise to himself, no that answer was superficial at best. It seemed that his silence was taken as a refusal to answer since Asuna broke the silence.

"Sorry, I know that you're not the type to really talk about this type of stuff, let's just forget this-"

"Actually, I was just thinking about my answer." Asuna looked a bit surprised before steeling her face back to her normal one.

"Oh…um, so what is it?"

"Back then, in that boss room. When I had just blocked that sword strike from Asterios and you two were telling me to run away, I had thought about it. Like you two told me, instead of letting all three of us die, letting at least one of us survive would be better." Asuna's eyes widened slightly as Neku continued, "However, my body refused vehemently to abandon you two. There was one thought in my head as I watch the boss slowly charge his attack." Neku actually looked away, "I thought, 'If my friends will die here, I will die with them.'" Neku was silent for a moment before continuing, "It wasn't about courage, or recklessness, or trying to look cool, I just couldn't abandon you guys in what could have been your final moments…" Neku looked back at Asuna, "I may be cold and cynical at most times, but I won't cast you two away like what we have done together is nothing." Neku scratched the back of his head, a rare sign of embarrassment.

"So… if anything that is where my courage comes from… sorry if it isn't what you were looking for but…"

"No… that is fine." Asuna said as she shook her head, "thanks for telling me." She gave a smile then, a small, genuine one, "Thanks for considering us friends, I know both Kirito and I consider you one too." Neku blinked before showing a giving a small smile of his own.

"Thanks." Just then his stomach cramped as if to complain about the reason they were here, and his smile turned to a frown. "Speaking of friends, where the hell is our last member?"

Asuna frowned, "Yeah, he should have been here a while ago, let me go-"

The tent flap opened quickly then, and Kirito ran in breathlessly, "Sorry for making you guys wait, I lost track of time."

Asuna started to scold him about making them wait, but Neku just rolled his eyes, "let's just order already, we have to do the 6th quest tomorrow."

The two nodded and, after ordering, they quickly ate their meals before returning to Kizmel's tent. Neku laid down on the furs and slowly drew another one up to his neck. He enjoyed the warmth as it enveloped his body and his consciousness started to fade.

-§-

Well, here is chapter eight. Can't say that it is impressive. Not too much action, but moves the story along. The talk between Asuna and Neku wasn't planned. Initially it was just filler dialogue between the two, since they usually don't talk to much to each other. However, after developing it for a while, I reconstructed it to be the focus of the chapter. And for those who are worried, no, this is not a romantic moment between the two, more like a comradeship moment, re-affirming their faith as allies on the battlefield.

Shiki Shiori, your idea intrigues me, but unfortunately, as much as I would love to abuse such a broken mechanic, after extensive research into it, I am 99% sure Neku could not use Secret Report#1 as a invincible, damage deflecting gauntlet.

As for your comment on LASS setup, unfortunately such a mechanic, while it could be implemented, would never be used by any sane player. LASS puts the wearer in a critical state (low HP) but in return raises attack. This is usable in TWEWY because you have your partner's HP to survive off of if you take a hit. In SAO, there is no second HP bar to utilize, and thus would be too risky. Yes, there is the age old argument, "No HP doesn't matter as long as you don't get hit," but in a life or death situation, players would most likely prioritize their life, and thus optimize their equipment accordingly.

As always, leave a review if you enjoyed it, or comment on how I could do better.


	9. Stalkers in the Night

The sound of rustling sheets awoke Neku from his slumber. Blearily, Neku glanced at the time in his peripheries to realize it was 3 AM. Neku turned to the side to see Kirito slowly standing up and tip-toeing to the exit. Neku frowned, where would Kirito be going at such an early time in the morning? Then it hit him. The next part of the elf quest was infiltration of the forest elf base. Kirito had mentioned that the quest was easiest when alone, since there was a secret path on the backside of the base to climb up and get the elf orders undetected. However, did he really need to do it so early in the morning?

Neku slowly got up and proceeded to walk out the tent. The rustle of the flap caused Kirito to turn around in shock before sighing in relief at the sight of Neku.

"Did I wake you? Sorry," said Kirito as he slowly equipped his gear, "I will try to be more careful next time."

Neku rolled his eyes, "like I haven't heard that one before, you going to do the next quest for the elf campaign?"

"Yeah," Kirito said with a nod, "I know exactly where the base is and the exact path for this specific location. If the ALS or the DKB do the quest before us, the location will move and then we will need to start from scratch."

"But did you need to do it at 3 AM?" Neku said as he scratched his head in frustration, "What are the chances that the ALS or DKB are awake at this ungodly hour doing quests?"

"I also want to finish up the campaign for this floor so we can explore the labyrinth before the other guilds," Kirito shrugged, "last time we didn't do much exploration due to the weapon scandal."

"That is true," Neku muttered, "I only took Beat and Rhyme to a spawning spot and you had to help Asuna collect Wind Wasp Needles all over again. We missed out on a lot of those chests."

"Precisely," Kirito said, "hopefully we can finish the remainder of the quests in two days and start on tower exploration."

Neku rubbed his eyes, "And I am sure Lind and Kibou are just going to be overjoyed with our plan."

Kirito barked out a laugh, "when did you care about what Lind and Kibou think?"

"I never said I cared," Neku shot back, "Anyway, are you sure you will be fine your own?"

"You know me and my fighting style well enough. I'll be fine," said Kirito as he raised an eyebrow, "If you are that worried, you can come along if you want."

"Well I am probably not going to get to sleep anytime soon," said Neku as he opened his menu and started to equip his battle gear, "Might as well come with and get some experience points." After Neku's gear had been equipped he activated the scan skill, "Alright, let's move."

-§-

The two headed off soon after that. They trekked through forest, slaying enemies as they came across them. They had just finished a fight when Kirito asked Neku something strange.

"Hey Neku, which side of the Elf quest did you say you did again?"

Neku frowned, "I told you, I didn't do the elf campaign, I didn't like this floor so I never explored it too much."

"Oh yeah," Kirito muttered, "I remember now."

"Are you feeling alright?" Neku asked as raised an eyebrow, "we can turn back and do this in the morning if you're not in top condition."

Kirito shook his head, "That isn't it, it is just… Kizmel said something strange to me yesterday."

Neku rolled his eyes on that one, "I am sure she is going to keep saying strange things too, remember she is a high-level AI, she might say something due to her algorithms that may seem weird."

"No, it is not like she said something that didn't make sense," Kirito clenched his fists, "She said something that I thought was impossible."

"Well would you mind filling me in?" asked Neku as he threw up his hands in defeat, "because I am done playing twenty questions."

Kirito breathed in before saying, "She said that she has been having dreams lately."

"So what?" Neku said as he narrowed his eyes, "Other than the fact that AIs cannot dream, that's not out of the ordinary, it's just flavor text."

"The dreams were the interesting part," Kirito stressed, "the dreams are about me."

Neku paused before raising an eyebrow, "You?"

Kirito nodded, "Remember how I told you that I had done the first quest of the elf quest 4 times?"

Neku nodded, "Yeah, I recall that."

"Well, when Kizmel spoke about the dreams she was having." Kirito said as he started to reminisce, "She is at the clearing fighting the forest elf when a group of strangers appears to help her, and I am in that group. Unfortunately, the group cannot hold on and she must sacrifice her life to save us from being killed. Every time she sees this dream I have different clothes and the faces around me are different. That is exactly the situation I was in while in the beta."

"Memories from the beta test? Is that even possible?" Neku frowned, "I thought everything was wiped like player's levels and items."

Kirito nodded, "No matter how odd it sounds, that what is seems to be."

"Perhaps your previous interactions with Kizmel were saved?" Neku asked as he crossed his arms, "AI grow as they are exposed to more data after all."

Kirito frowned, "But if that were the case wouldn't she remember all the beta testers that she has seen before?"

"I don't know the specifics," Neku shot back, "All I was saying is that…" Neku paused as he moved a branch out of his way, "Hey, is this where we were headed?"

Kirito looked forward, through the brush and the leaves to find the Forest Elf Camp sitting on a solitary cliff. Both boys knelt down to look at the situation. It was brightly lit by multiple torches scattered around the camp. There were multiple forest elves scattered around the camp as well, moving in a pattern. Their cursors, colored a bright red, indicated that they would be in for a formidable fight if they would charge in head first.

Kirito pointed to the side, "let's go around the back to use the secret path." Neku nodded and the two circled around, slowly climbing down the incline. At the bottom of the cliff, there was a large open area enclosed by a forest with a small creek passing though. Neku followed Kirito as he walked, and eventually they stopped just beneath the elf camp.

"The path is this way," Kirito said as he pointed upwards, "I'll go get the scroll and be back soon."

"I'll be counting on you," Neku muttered as he snapped twice, "just hurry it up." Kirito nodded slowly, taking a cursory glance around the area before climbing up the cliff with ease. The black-haired boy deftly leapt over the fence with ease soon after and all was quiet. Neku silently watched for a while before suddenly turning around.

"So," Neku said as his eyes narrowed, "What are you doing out here?"

The headphones wearing boy had directed his question towards a tree at the other edge of the clearing. His aim, however, was the small, unseen figure crouching beneath it. The player was using the hiding skill, which rendered the user invisible to others for as long as it was active. A way to counter it was the searching skill which would automatically alert the player if something was amiss, but that was only if the skill's level surpassed the hiding one. Neku's scan skill had substituted for it however, showing some of the player's stats and name. He had sent Kirito up to get the quest item while he would take care of the pest. To break through the stealth effect of a hidden player's, all someone had to do was to stare at their location without breaking eye contact.

As Neku continued to stare at the tree, a green cursor came into view. As the hiding skill faded, it seemed as if the shadows were torn away and a figure slowly slid into view. A cloak blanketed the person's figure, while a metal hood, with chains dangling in the front, covered the eyes, serving as a cheap, but effective disguise. Realizing that the hiding skill had been negated, the player slowly got up and started to walk forward a large grin on his face. The grin, however, was too big to be genuine.

"Wow, I didn't think that I would be spotted that quickly," the figure drawled, "but I suppose nothing passes the eyes of the elite beta testers."

Neku crossed his arms, "Who the hell are you and what do you want?"

"Chill partner, I'm not here to cause any harm," said the cloaked figure raising both arms as if this was a stick up, "just surveying the land you know?"

"Stop the stalling tactics," Neku said, "I don't have time for games."

"Fine, fine, take a chill pill" said the metal hooded figure, "The name's Morte, and I'm out here to get the key item for the elf infiltration quest, that's all."

"Then why were you standing at the edge of the forest like that," Neku said as he frowned," instead of attempting to do it yourself?"

"I'm a beta tester too, but I didn't do this part of the quest, friend of mine did," Morte shrugged, "I was just watching the guards' movement patterns to see when I could sneak in undetected, like I said, 'surveying the land.'"

"Cut the crap," Neku said as he rolled his eyes, "you can't see anything from down here in the valley, much less the guard's movements, you were waiting down here for something else."

Morte's grin seemed to widen just a fraction, "Why, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Neku frowned, he knew Morte wasn't here for the elf quest, that much was obvious from the fact that he had stayed hidden even after Kirito and Neku had come. This is why Neku had snapped twice before sending Kirito on his way. To tell him to be careful, that there was a hidden player nearby. After their unfortunate encounter with a beta tester on their very first day of the game, they had developed a code made from everyday gestures and actions, to warn their partner about other player or monster actions and had committed it to memory. Of course, talking would always be the easiest option, but some cases, like this one, called for a more discreet approach.

So, what was Morte here for? Neku suspected that he had been waiting for a player to come by that knew about this back path, and after the player climbed up to get the elf orders, Morte would make a loud noise, which would alert the guards that something was amiss. The guards would move out of their predetermined patterns and the probability of the player being discovered would rise dramatically, and that would be it for the player, a perfect monster player kill. However, not only were there two players, Morte had been discovered by Neku as well. He would have had to change his plans. He either would need to abandon his plot or somehow get Neku out of the picture to then carry on his original plan. If he was going to abandon it however, he would have just ran away when discovered, Neku could have not had recognized him with his current disguise. Instead Morte had decided to approach, which only left one option.

"Well, this is clearly getting us nowhere," Morte said as he shrugged, "From the look you're giving me, you already think that I am a dirty murder-loving player killer. "Tell you what, I will withdraw for tonight, and not bother you anymore, under the condition you play a little game with me." With that the figure opened his menu and something appeared in front of Neku, a one-on-one duel request.

"A duel?" Neku said, narrowing his eyes. He quickly looked over the win conditions and found it was set to half health mode, getting the opposing player to half health, or yellow. "Why not choose first strike-mode? Certainly takes less time than this."

"Where is the fun in that?" Morte asked, "I want a battle, not a small game where the first decisive blow wins you the bout. We can't do the full finish mode obviously like the good old days in the beta, but with this mode we could have a good time, then I just leave, simple right?" Neku had expected this as well. But Morte had made one fatal error.

"Alright, let's do this," Neku said as he tapped the accept button, then proceeded to walk away until he was around fifteen meters away from the other player. Morte had a ravenous grin on his face and he drew his sword from his waist. Neku also grabbed his sword from his back and held it in front of him. The timer between then counted down, as both players got themselves ready. Neku held a neutral stance, ready to block or shift into a sword skill at a moment's notice. Morte hung his sword over his shoulder, waiting casually. A few seconds before the timer hit zero, Morte started to initiate a sword skill, Sonic Leap causing his blade to glow blue. Neku's eyes widened and the grip on his sword became tighter. Normally if an opponent were to attack before the pre-duel timer hit zero, they would instead be knocked back by the system and get an orange marker to boot. But Neku knew that as soon as the timer hit zero, everything was fair game, even sword skills activated before the time countdown finished. Morte was attempting a pre-emptive strike.

Morte jumped and flew through the air, the sword skill pushing him forward at an impressive speed. Neku just stood there, waiting for the perfect chance. Then, a second before contact, Neku slid to the right harshly evading the attack. Just then the timer reached zero, and a sound rung out, initiating the duel. Morte stumbled not expecting him to have read his move, and therefore was not ready for Neku's next strike. Sword glowing blue, Neku performed the sword skill Horizontal Arc hitting Morte two times.

"Guh! You… gotta be kidding me," spat out Morte backing away as the red lines faded from his vestige, "Two critical hits? You're pretty lucky." Neku shrugged, it was easy to get critical hits, especially while Scan was active.

"Seems you know your ways around duels," Neku said as he casually approached, "you even knew about how to get a pre-emptive strike in a method that goes around the system. I'm fairly impressed, not too many people know about it."

"Oh yeah?" Morte said, "Then how come you know about it?" Neku gave a wicked grin, so much so that Morte took a step back.

"In the beta, people really didn't like my attitude, so they all constantly challenged me to duels, hoping to 'take the asshole down a peg.' I was in a lot of full-finish duels, against a whole number of people. I killed so many people that the exp almost outpaced what I got when I went out grinding. It was so lucrative in fact I got a separate name in the beta, PVP Slayer. I know all the tricks in the book, and you, you're going to crash and Burn!"

As if on cue, Morte was enveloped by flames. This of course was from Neku's pyrokinesis subskill that he had obtained earlier. His had forced his speech patterns to end them on the key word to activate it without attracting attention. Morte panicked and ran to the small stream to put the flames out, throwing himself into the water in a frenzy. Neku held up his sword high and it glowed blue. He jumped and accelerated as if pushed by and invisible hand. The sword skill Sonic Leap brought him right to Morte and he swung down with all his might. There was an explosion of water as Neku's sword dug into Morte avatar. Morte gripped Neku's sword and dragged it out of him before retreating once again. He opened his menu and tapped a button. Instantly he was equipped with a one-handed axe and shield.

"So, what the hell was that?" Morte breathed out trying to catch his breath, "I didn't know there was magic in this game."

"Why, I have no idea what you're talking about." Neku said in a mocking drawl. Morte scowled at having his own words thrown back at him, before charging forwards with a yell. Neku calmly evaded his attacks. One handed axe users could only slash, since thrusting with a one handed axe was impractical. There were some axes with a steel pointed tip on their heads, but the Harsh Hatchet that Morte was currently using was not one of the few. As Morte swiped furiously at him, Neku dodged and threw out some sword swings of his own when Morte overextended, causing small red marks to gradually build up on his body. Morte then slipped on the wet rocks and tumbled backwards, an opening that Neku abused by swinging his sword at Morte's shield. The offending object was wrenched from Morte's grip and flew off into the distance. Morte leapt backwards and raised his axe to guard himself. Neku didn't pursue however, he just brought up his sword in a defensive position.

"What? Not going to attack?" Morte said, breath heavy with fatigue, "My HP is just above halfway. A single sword swing will end the duel."

"I believe I told you I was the 'PVP Slayer,'" said Neku in a sardonic drawl, "I don't finish duels just by meeting the requirements, I finish them when my opponent can no longer fight back, and your HP is just over halfway, I wonder what would happen if I use a strong sword skill?" Morte's eyes widened as he realized what Neku was hinting at. It was possible to kill a player in a duel, even with the half finish mode setting. All one had to do was get a player to just before half health, then use a strike that dealt the entirety of the player's remaining HP in one move, usually a sword skill. Neku had no doubt that Morte had used this method multiple times.

"You're bluffing," Morte said, "you'd go red." Neku gave a sarcastic laugh.

"We both know that you can't get a criminal marker from killing in a duel, drop the good guy act. Besides, that was your aim when you initiated this duel."

"Nothing really escapes you beta testers huh?" Morte said as he clicked his tongue in annoyance. Morte raised his axe but at that moment the elf base on the top of the cliff started to fade. Morte scowled before grinning at Neku, "Well, I hate to say it, but with the base gone, I have no business here. See you later." Morte hopped back, retrieving his shield that had been thrown off before waving and running away. Neku frowned, but did not give chase. While he did have some questions, Neku doubted Morte would be willing to answer them. Soon Morte's form disappeared beyond the edge of the trees as the time ran out, showing Neku as the winner of the duel. A few minutes later, Kirito descended the cliff.

"I assume that you already took care of our unexpected guest?" asked Kirito as he looked around. Neku nodded.

"I assume he was aiming for a MPK," Neku said as he sheathed his sword, "but all he could do was lose in a duel against me."

"How did that go for him?" Kirito snorted, "I doubt he was any threat to the legendary PVP Slayer." Neku just rolled his eyes.

"Come on, let's get going," said Neku as he stared to walk back to the path, "we got an few hours till sunrise and I want to catch some shut eye before then."

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!?"

Both Neku and Kirito looked at each other. They both knew that annoying voice anywhere.

-§-

"You assholes went and finished the quest before us. Admit it!" shouted Kibou as he clenched his fist. There was a murmur of agreement from the ALS members that were behind him.

"And I keep telling you, we have no idea what you are talking about!" yelled back Lind, "we got here just a few moments before you and the camp was already gone! We are just in the dark as you!"

"Spare me your lies!" spat Kibou, "you're just trying to finish the quest before us and get the boss info!"

"Boss info?" said Lind, "We are only going through the elf quest for the items and experience, if there is some crucial floor boss info, we of the DKB weren't informed of it! Where the hell did you hear about that?"

"Shut your damn mouth! Gah! This is why dealing with the DKB only brings trouble," seethed Kibou as he crossed his arms in frustration.

Kirito sighed and Neku had to agree. The two swordsmen were peeking over the cliff and watched the two guild leaders were butting heads like children. True, neither Kirito nor Neku had ever guessed that the two guilds would be active this early in the morning, but that didn't mean that is was acceptable to throw a tantrum because someone finished the quest before you. As the two groups bickered more, Kirito turned to Neku.

"What do you think? We could reveal ourselves and defuse the situation."

"You're kidding, right?" muttered Neku as he continued to watch, "all that would happen would they would get angry at us." Kirito sighed at Neku's statement.

"Neku, you know as well as I that the two guilds should be working together so we can clear the game faster."

"Wrong," stated Neku as he sent Kirito a glance, "the two guilds are using each other as rivals to push themselves further. In theory this would work, but since both leaders are flawed this kind of crap is going to happen from now on. Kibou is a selfish egomaniac, so he is going to throw a fit every single time he doesn't get what he wants. It is like a toddler that doesn't get candy at the end of a shopping trip."

"And Lind?" asked Kirito. Neku rolled his eyes.

"Lind is too concerned about appearances, and I am not talking about his cosplay as Diavel either. He wants to be the hero of Aincrad, so he is putting up a front of glory and honor. Notice how he never gets emotional in any of his arguments. He is trying to sell himself as a calm, collected individual."

"Hold on," whispered Kirito, "he could be just like that as an individual, that doesn't mean he is putting up a front."

"Really?" asked Neku as he tilted his head, "who was it that blamed you for Diavel's death on the first floor?" Kirito's eyes widened.

"No way… that was…Lind wasn't it?" Neku nodded.

"He is certainly capable of flying off the handle like before, he just reigns himself in now doesn't want to spoil is good image."

"That's…. really harsh Neku," sighed Kirito as he looked at his orange-haired partner, "for all you know, Lind could just be trying to let cooler heads prevail, it isn't all about people trying to protect their image."

"YOU PIECE OF- You take that back right now!" The shout brought the two back to the conversation. One of the DKB members were looking at an ALS member who had a smug grin as his face.

"Make me, we all know that it's true."

The DKB member grit his teeth, before slowly, painstakingly moving his hand towards his sword at his side. Lind held out his hand in front of the member to try and make him back off, but the DKB member refused to let go of his blade. Kirito tensed before moving to climb up on the ledge, but Neku grabbed his coat and pulled him back down.

"What are you trying to do?" hissed Neku as he glared at Kirito.

"We need to stop them! Nothing good will happen if the two guilds go to war with each other!" Neku let out a harsh sigh before rubbing his eyes.

"Fine, but we do this my way."

-§-

Multiple members of either guild had their hands on their weapons at this point. The tension in the air was thick, and any move could set them off. However, a sound cut through the silence. The soft rhythmic sound of footsteps echoed throughout the area, causing people to turn in confusion to see who the newcomer was.

"Wow, two guilds fighting like schoolgirls, though I should have expected as much from you two."

The voice alone gave him away, but as the clouds moved to the side allowing the moon to shine brightly once more, the figure was revealed, spikey orange hair with purple headphones being the most prominent features.

"Neku…" hissed Kibou as he turned to face the newcomer, "What the hell are you doing here?" Neku opened his mouth, a biting response on his lips, but he was cut off by a high-pitched shriek.

"I- I know the truth! He is the one that complete the quest before us!" Neku looked over to see a masked figure in the ALS group pointing a finger at him. Neku rolled his eyes.

"Oh, how observant," mocked Neku as he gave a few sarcastic claps, "a round of applause for the man who figured it out."

"So, you're after the boss info too," growled Kibou as he clenched his fist. Neku raised an eyebrow.

"Boss info? The hell are you talking about? My party is just clearing the elf for the EXP and items, who said there was boss info?" Kibou growled a wordless question at Neku's blatant statement.

"You- Your lying! You just want to monopolize the info and screw us over, so we all die in the labyrinth!" screeched out the same voice as last time.

"Joe shut up, for pete's sake!" roared Kibou as he turned to glare at the ALS member. He slowly rotated to face Neku once more, "what do you mean that there is no boss info? If you're lying-"

"He isn't." Kirito's sharp words cut through the air. All the players whirled around as Kirito calmly walked out of the forest across from Neku. He looked at both of the guild leaders as he passed by before simply stopping next to Neku and turning around, "I have beaten the elf quest already in the beta and there was no information about the boss of this floor. If there truly is crucial information it would have been added after the beta. Nobody is hiding anything from you or the ALS Kibou." As multiple people started to lower their weapons, Lind took his chance to speak.

"Kirito is right, as stated before, the DKB is only after the experience to level to prepare us for the dungeon exploration."

"Well how do we know that you aren't lying?" spat Kibou as he glared at both Kirito and Lind. Neku sighed before cutting in.

"Because my party is giving up the elf quest campaign after this one." Lind and Kibou's eyebrows rose at Neku's declaration. To Kirito's credit, he didn't react, even though this conversation wasn't pre-planned.

"Are you serious?" asked Lind, "You're willing to give up all the EXP and items you could be getting?" Neku had to hold himself back from rolling his eyes.

"You don't get it do you? While both guilds are stuck on the campaign trail, fighting every step of the way, my group is going to be clearing the dungeon, and we will be taking every treasure chest the place has to offer." Kibou scowled and scratched his head as if generally confused.

"I just don't know what to think anymore," said Kibou as he looked at Kirito and Neku, "you think your group can really beat the boss without the boss info?" Kirito opened his mouth to respond but was cut off by a voice.

"He… He's lying!" Joe screeched, reminding Neku of nails on a chalkboard, "They know that they can't beat the boss without the info, they are stalling us here while their last party member delivers the key item back to the dark elf base!" Neku's face tensed slightly, while Kirito's frown deepened. They had hoped that nobody would mention Asuna's lack of presence. Considering they had been seen together for a while, it would be suspicious if their last member was nowhere to be found. Lind latched onto the point.

"Yes, where is your wayward member? We cannot dismiss the fact that her lack of presence here is a bit suspicious."

Kirito glanced at Neku, clearly hoping that he had an idea to deflect this accusation, but Neku could only grimace. Fortunately, neither of them had to do anything, as a voice came from the forest.

"If you are looking for me, I am right here." Asuna slowly walked out from behind a tree, her chestnut hair glowing slightly in the moonlight as she walked silently past the two guilds and placed herself on the other side of Kirito before promptly turning around glaring at the two leaders, who each took a step back. "As my companion has stated, we are all giving up on the elf campaign and heading to the tower." Her smile turned predatory, "I believe it was a rule that whoever found the boss room first got to lead the raid right?" Both Lind and Kibou paled considerably at her comment. Asuna smirked and continued, "Even if you guys don't want to participate in a raid led by a girl, I am sure we can gather a large number of people to do the raid with us." Lind was the first to snap out of his reverie.

"Asuna, I don't doubt you and your party's strength, but I must question your plan to take on the labyrinth boss without our guilds." Lind stated as he looked at her, "this may be not the best time for it, but have either you or Kirito given any thought about joining either of our guilds? Remember only one person can join each guild, in the spirit of fairness." Neku desperately wanted to facepalm. Kirito looked like he wanted to do the same. Lind, for as much charisma he had to lead the DKB, clearly did not have the people skills to read the situation. Asuna had been quite furious about the suggestion before when tensions weren't high. Here, the situation was drastically different. However, before Asuna unleashed her wrath on the blue-haired swordsman, a new voice echoed out.

"It is not only them, I will be helping them as well." There was a ruffling of cloth and Kizmel appeared, scimitar and kite shield shining eerily in the moonlight. The two guild leader's faces were priceless as Kizmel stood proudly, allowing her cape to fall quietly across her back. She spoke, "I am Kizmel, a royal knight of the Pagoda Knights in the service of the kingdom of Lyusula!" Freeing an arm from the confines of her cape, she gestured towards Kirito, Asuna and Neku, "I have promised to help these three human warriors in their endeavors, and if they wish to journey into the Pillar of the Heavens than I will assist them!"

"K…Kirito, you *gulp* you sure you should be standing near her?" suddenly asked Lind in a stutter as he backed up multiple steps." Kibou looked at Lind warily.

"Why would he do that?"

"T…The cursor," said Lind, "It's pitch black… It is probably stronger than the initial elf that we fought at the start of the elf campaign..." Kibou's eyes widened and he too created more distance between himself and the recently revealed elf. Neku's eyes flashed as an idea struck him.

"As you can see," Neku stated, "we are well prepared to take on the labyrinth. So if you will excuse us-"

"Wait, wait! Hold on a second!" shouted Kibou before he quickly jogged over to Lind. What followed was a hushed conversation between the two guild leaders. Eventually the two looked up and turned back to Neku's group.

"Kirito, Asuna, Neku, the DKB and ALS have both decided to give up on the elf campaign." Kirito raised an eyebrow.

"You sure that is wise Lind?" asked Kirito, "I thought that you needed the experience points." Lind looked at Kizmel for a second before giving a large gulp before speaking.

"The DKB will find another way to accrue the EXP needed. However, both groups need to verify if the rumor of the boss information is true or not. We would like to delegate that duty to your group." Neku scoffed at that, but Kirito answered before Neku could give a biting reply.

"We can handle that." Lind let out breath before nodding.

"Then our groups will start on the labyrinth. Based on past explorations, we will find the boss room in 2-3 days, please have the elf quests done by then so we can prepare for the boss." Kirito nodded once in agreement. Lind nodded back before turning to talk to the DKB, "Alright everyone, let's head out and get some rest! We challenge the dungeon in the morning!"

The groups departed and soon enough the only people standing there were the 4 party members. Neku let out a long drawn out sigh, before turning to Kirito with a glare.

"And that is why we don't mess with other guilds. Now come on, I want to get some rest."

"Now hold on," Neku glanced at Asuna who had spoken, "You two just left Kizmel and I behind so you could do the next mission by yourselves? You are both lucky that Kizmel woke me up to follow you two or you guys would have been in trouble." Neku bit back a scathing response on how they could have handled it themselves, because she was right, if she had not intervened when she did, they would have been in a tight bind.

"You're right," Neku said instead, "Sorry for leaving you behind." Asuna seemed more shocked than anything that Neku was the one apologizing. She blinked before speaking tentatively,

"Well…umm, just don't do it again, we're a team, right?" Neku and Kirito both looked at each other before turning back to her, the cheeky grin on Kirito's face and a small but genuine smile on Neku's.

"Yeah."

-§-

I'll be honest, the newest progressive light novel really motivated me for this chapter. Just reading about SAO again really got the creative juices flowing again. It also gave me more ideas for skills and the like later on. Either way I am finally happy that this finally is done so I can release it.

As a surprise to nobody, I am going to start trying to use the format insert sword skill name here. To me, it helps me focus on the action scenes with a bit more clarity but tell me what you think of them. Cannot guarantee that I will keep them or take them away yet, it is just a test.

As for the chapter itself, the duel between Morte and Neku was the highlight this chapter. I particularly enjoyed the coordination for the fight, and I look forward to writing more of them.

Thanks for the reviews, they really do help. I always find it informative what other people think. Taking another angle on my story is a great form of inspiration.


	10. Encounter with the Unknown

Sword Art Online and The World Ends with You are not owned by me, but this is a work of my own creation. Please do not take any ideas without permission.

§

Neku blinked wearily as he stood outside the commander's tent with Asuna, waiting for Kirito and Kizmel to join them from the breakfast tent.

"Honestly," mumbled Asuna as she tapped her boot on the ground in impatience, "getting seconds when we need to hurry up with these missions. The raid groups only gave us so much time and we won't finish these quests by eating a lot." Neku just yawned tiredly. The group had gotten back around 5 AM and had immediately hit the sack, but time waits for no man, so they had all dragged themselves out of the bed at 8 AM to get started on the next quest. To 'wake himself up' Kirito had insisted on ordering seconds, much to Asuna's annoyance, and had asked Kizmel to keep him company. So now Neku and Asuna were waiting for their two wayward companions to finally join them. Even in his sleep deprived state however, Neku could guess what their black-haired party member was really after. Kirito had mentioned that Kizmel was more than she seemed, or rather, her AI was much more advanced than all other NPCs encountered so far. The possibility of her knowledge of the beta test, even though interpreted as dreams by Kizmel, must have intrigued him. So instead of complaining about his very round-a-bout way to chase his curiosities, Neku had instead just left the tent.

This, however, left him with pacifying Asuna's anger. Neku glanced at the currently fuming chestnut-haired girl and sighed, "Asuna calm down." The aforementioned girl whirled on him.

"Come on Neku! We don't actually need food or drink in this world!" Asuna scowled, "We only feel hunger due to the Nervegear simulating it for us! Eating more won't actually wake him up! The other guilds gave us two days to finish this elf chain quest and we still have four more quests to go!"

"I know that," Neku said as he held up both hands in a placating manner, "and Kirito definitely knows that. He is trying to clear this game just like everyone else. So, think about it, if we both know that, why would he make such a poor excuse of 'eating more to wake up?'"

"Wait, what?" Asuna's tirade faded as her face turned contemplative, "so he is getting quest info or something?"

"That is a good thought," Neku stated as he shook his head, "but no, in this case it is to try and study the AI that Kizmel has… probably."

"You don't sound too confident," Asuna said as she put her hands on her hips, "And wait a minute! Then that has nothing to do with clearing the game!"

"But it does," Neku said calmly, "just like every game, you need to fully explore it to use every function, mechanic, and tool to its fullest. Kirito is measuring Kizmel's AI responses, if we encounter other NPCs with similar AI, we can use his experiences and observations to extrac… _obtain_ information we usually would need to grind to find out."

"For example," Neku pointed at Asuna's rapier, "your sword is a one of a kind weapon. The only one in existence as of right now. There is a possibility that the Dark Elf blacksmith could produce many weapons of a simpler caliber every single time we asked for a weapon to be made. But we, as players, would need to conduct multiple trials to prove or disprove that theory. But Kizmel told us directly that we should not expect such a result. While it is true that she could have lied to dissuade us, and other players, from taking advantage of this fact…"

"She didn't," Asuna said as she crossed her arms, "Kizmel is an ally and a friend, she wouldn't lie to us."

"Yes," Neku nodded, "that is the conclusion Kirito and I reached as well. If we can communicate with NPCs to get insider information, we don't need to waste time trying something out via trial and error." The chestnut-haired girl gave a soft hum of approval as she thought about Neku's words. She then suddenly frowned.

"While that is all well in theory," Asuna said, "should we really be letting Kirito handle that kind of 'information gathering?'"

"Who else in our group is capable of that kind of stuff?" Asked Neku as he crossed his arms.

"Well you could…no wait, you would be even worse than Kirito..."

"And you are not a viable choice either," Neku said as he pointed at her, "Kirito and I have a full month of beta testing experience, we know the AI, the ticks, the nuances. We can pick up on the subtle differences that will help us ask the right questions for the best results, or rather, better results that you could produce as you currently are."

"Yeah, your right…" Asuna sighed, "sorry I got angry earlier…"

"I don't mind," Neku shrugged, "it's just something we have to deal with for now. Eventually, you will be just as knowledgeable as us, and if you want to pick up this AI examination at that time, be my guest. And besides," Neku said as he tugged an orange spike of his hair, "This is Kirito we are talking about, he may not be the best at social cues, but how bad could he mess up?"

As if on cue, the two heard the breakfast tent flap open and footsteps approaching them. Neku turned to face the duo. Kizmel was walking in front, with a confident stride, her lilac hair flowing gently from side to side, mimicking her movements. What caught his eye, however, was not their Dark Elf companion, but the black-haired boy that was trailing her. Kirito had a troubled look on his face, he was pale, as if he had seen a ghost. Then Kirito looked up and locked eyes with the headphone wearing boy. In one swift movement, Kirito performed an action.

Neku and Kirito had a list of actions that could be used as a code to communicate information. They were as simple as one-word commands like 'go', 'stop', or 'approach', and could be as complex as 'flank the enemy as I provide a distraction'. However, the action Kirito performed was not one of the multiple actions that the two had come up with. It didn't need to be. The action Kirito performed was a bowed head and swiftly bringing his hands together as if killing a mosquito. It was a gesture to indicate a request for forgiveness.

Neku could only blink in confusion at Kirito's strange action until Kizmel came up to him.

"Ahem, Neku… Kirito and I were discussing somethings and well… How should I say this?" Neku could only looked back and forth between the blushing Dark Elf and the severely flustered dark-haired boy that was trying to get her to not speak. "I am…flattered by your affections towards me, but I would like to remind you that if you would like me to be your wife, that would require Her Majesty, the Queen's permission."

The silence that followed lasted a long time. Neku breathed in slowly and closed his eyes, before slowly opening them again. The dark red irises the only indication that he had activated Scan.

"Kirito," Neku said as he slowly drew his blade, "I have never considered becoming a Red player before." The grip on his handle tightened, "But I have a feeling that if I went Red over this… it would be worth it."

-§-

After the misunderstanding had been cleared up, the group had received the next quest, Butterfly Collection. Simply put, the quest involved them hunting down a large butterfly that the Forest Elves had released for reconnaissance purposes. The group had traveled for around thirty minutes until they discovered the monster.

"So how are we supposed to take this thing down?" asked Asuna as she peeked around a tree. Neku felt the need to remind her that she was not in the range to attract the monster's aggro, so there really was no reason to hide, but Kirito answered be for Neku to speak.

"Well, it is pretty agile in midair, so trying to use aerial sword skills won't work very well. The best way is to use the Throwing Knives skill to take it down, but since none of us actually have that skill, we need to try something else." Kirito knelt down and picked up a rock, "We use these" Asuna made a choking sound.

"You have got to be kidding me!" she said as she pointed at the stone in Kirito's hand, "you don't honestly expect to kill a monster by just throwing rocks at it, do you?"

"Well, it has low HP and defense," Kirito shrugged, "but if you have any other ideas, I am all for it. You wouldn't happen to have an open skill slot would you? Or are you willing to overwrite one of your current skills for the Throwing Knives skill?" Asuna flinched before sighing and kneeling down to pick up a pebble of her own.

"I got a better idea." Neku scoffed as he rolled his eyes, the other two players looked at him curiously as he walked forward. With a swift motion, Neku raised his hand and spoke, "Burn!"

Immediately the large insect was engulfed in flames, giving off an earsplitting shriek as it wheeled around midair trying to put itself out. In its panic it smashed into a tree, sending it to the ground. Neku didn't let this chance go, his sword already shining blue he launched forward under the effects of Rage Spike and covered the distance in an instant, stabbing his sword forward into the creature. Kirito had been right, as soon as his blade pierced the butterfly, it gave out another cry of pain before shattering into azure polygons. Neku swiftly sheathed his sword and returned to his teammates who were looking at him flabbergasted.

"Neku, I was unaware humanity was able to keep the spell of flame when magic was lost from the land." Kizmel smiled, "With such a skill in your arsenal, I am sure the Queen would be much more willing to accept a marriage proposal for any Knight of Lyusula, myself included." Kizmel's joke was thoroughly ignored in favor of Asuna and Kirito's outburst.

"When did you get something like that?!"

"Its not like you guys tell me all of your skills and subskills," Neku said as he crossed his arms defensively, "But as you can probably guess, it is from the Psych skill. When I defeated the giant spider in that special dungeon, my proficiency for Psych increased to 200 and the Pyrokinesis subskill was unlocked." Asuna nodded, accepting the facts, but Kirito just looked dissatisfied.

"This is so unfair," the black-haired swordsman bemoaned, "you have a shiny, secret skill that nobody will ever have access to, a unique skill."

"A special skill for the guy who wins the lottery of over one million copies of CDs, "Neku stated as he gave a shrug. "I'd say it is a fair trade."

"Let's head back," Kizmel said, breaking into their conversation, "The commander may have finished decoding the forest elf orders that we retrieved earlier." The group agreed and they started to make their way back. Neku fell into step with Kirito as Asuna adamantly chatted with Kizmel.

"What's our next move?"

"The eighth quest involves us going against a forest elf scouting party," Kirito stated, thinking back on his memories from the beta test, "The orders we stole from their camp details a mission to bring the jade key somewhere. We intercept them and try to get the key back. Unfortunately, as the story dictates, out of the four combatants, one gets away, but gets attacked by an entirely different faction. However, we are able to tag the unknown assailant with Shining Signal, a potion of elf origin that lets us pursue them for the ninth quest." Neku nodded before letting out a sigh. Kirito raised an eyebrow, "What's up?"

"Nothing big," Neku said waving a hand in a dismissive gesture, "I still am a bit sour about us losing out on the dungeon exploration though."

"Can't be helped," Kirito said with a shrug, "If this supposed boss info really is as great as Kibou claims it to be, then going through this quest line is crucial."

"When would we even get this special boss info?" Neku asked as he crossed his arms.

"Who knows," Kirito said as he shrugged, "It could be a reward after the final quest, it could be a dialogue we have with a dying elf enemy. We need to keep our ears peeled and prepared for everything."

"True enough," Neku nodded, "Though I haven't played the elf quest storyline before. So, we will be depending on you for your guidance."

"But of course," was Kirito's sarcastic reply as he rolled his eyes, "this master beta tester will show you the ropes."

The four walked back, easy conversation flowing between them. After arriving at the base camp, they reported to the commander, who, just as Kizmel said, had finished deciphering the Forest Elf orders. They were sent out once more, to intercept the Forest Elf party to try and reclaim the key.

The battle went smoothly, the four of them working synergistically to mow down the enemies. As soon as the second to last elf fell, the final elf turned tail. Neku started to run after the elf, but a figure designated as "Unknown Marauder" leapt down from above and stabbed the fleeing elf, stealing the key and started running at an abnormal speed. However, as Kirito had foretold, Kizmel was able to peg the retreating figure with a bottle of the tracking potion. Now they were on the ninth quest, 'Pursuit' which would guide them to the location for the tenth quest.

"Hmm, I wonder if they boosted the remaining elf's evasion so he can get away," muttered Kirito as they trudged through forest and fog, trying to track down the fleeing elf.

"I wouldn't doubt it," muttered Neku, "Did you see how it dodged out of my sword skill combo, when the second to last Forest Elf fell? It is like it exceeded physical limits to move out of the way of my blade." Asuna giggled.

"Are you sure you just didn't miss?" Neku just rolled his eyes, but before he could make a biting remark,

"Either way, it sure is great that we have Kizmel to help us with this section of the quest," Kirito said as he cut back into the conversation, "In the beta it took us from dawn till dusk to actually find the base." His words rang true. Kizmel was doing a superb job on leading them after their escaped enemy. While walking through the fog, the three humans were nearly blind, only catching glimpses of a shimmering light of what they were supposed to follow. But Kizmel lead the way with silent determination. While she would change directions seemingly at random, after only 2 hours, the group had successfully found the dungeon that their adversary had escaped to. They travelled back to base camp to report in and received the tenth and final quest "Retrieve the key." The tenth quest forced them to fight though a dungeon, albeit a simpler one with only 2 floors. However, the group had unanimously decided that it would be better to rest and recover for the rest of the day, considering their early start. So, after Asuna's long awaited bath and dinner of some sort of root- based stew, the four of them turned in for the quest the following day.

The next day broke and everyone was well rested. After eating, getting their equipment repaired and consumables restocked, the group went forth to take on the dungeon. It was easier finding the hidden base, since it had been marked on their map. So only an hour after they set out, they arrived at the entrance.

"Looks to be pretty straightforward," said Kirito as he walked up to the dungeon and unsheathed his sword. Go in and retrieve the Key."

"Yes, muttered Neku as he drew his own sword, "absolutely no monsters or other enemies at all."

"You knew what he meant Neku, now let's hurry this up." Asuna said as she rolled her eyes. The group entered and started to fight their way through. The enemies were all masked assailants that would appear from side hallways or from the shadows themselves. It wasn't rough going, since the group's levels were at the realistic limit for this floor, as well as the fact that they had excellent support from Kizmel. They finally burst through a pair of doors at the bottom and encountered another enemy. Above the figure it read 'Fallen Elf Commander.'

"Well, well, well, I was wondering what was causing such a ruckus upstairs, seems some rats have invaded our little home." The elf smirked viciously.

"Oh good," Neku muttered sarcastically, "I was just in the mood for a monologue." The fallen elf, obviously not hearing Neku's snide remark, continued on.

"I assume that you are here to take back the key, but you don't have a fundamental understanding of their true worth! You lot strive and struggle to keep them separate, denying the real possibilities! Unfortunately, your journey ends here! Get them!"

Out of the shadows a group of fallen elves appeared and attacked. The battle began in earnest. All in all it was an easy fight. The encounter switched between two phases. The minion phase and boss phase. During the minion phase enemies would constantly appear and they would need to be taken care of. The boss was invincible during this time so the party would need to deal with the extra enemies quickly. Once all extra foes had been taken care of, the boss phase would start, and players could attack the boss and lower his HP. After a certain amount of health was lost, the extra enemies would appear again, repeating the cycle. Fortunately, with the power of two fully upgraded Anneal blades, Asuna's raiper, and Kizmel's overwhelming stats, the fight took much less time than predicted.

"No! How could this be!" The fallen elf moaned as he dropped to one knee, "I can't lose here… not yet!" Neku rolled his eyes, disregarding the flavor text spewing out of the fallen foe's mouth. The SAO beta had the tendency to be straight to the point, but after the actual release, there had been a lot of filter text that was added.

"Alright, let's collect the key and get out of here." Neku said as he sheathed his sword, "We don't have much time."

"I agree with Neku," Kizmel said with a smile, "the earlier we leave the-" She stopped then, in the middle of her sentence. The three players looked at her, confused. Then, like a puppet's strings being cut, the dark elf collapsed on the ground. Asuna immediately was at her side, Kirito not far behind.

"Kizmel?! Kizmel! Can you hear me?! Speak to me!" Asuna tried to shaking her, but Kizmel would not respond. Asuna whirled to face the black-haired beta tester, "Kirito! What's going on?"

Kirito frowned deeply as he checked over the elf, "I- I don't know, there are no debuffs that make someone just faint like this. It could be a bug, but SAO shouldn't have any… Gah! Neku! You have any idea?" But the orange-haired player was not looking at them, instead he was slowly backing up and drawing his blade once more looking at where the fallen elf commander's body had disappeared, or rather, where the body still was. Eerily, the body had not shattered into blue shards yet, but instead a dark miasma was spewing from the broken body. It slowly raised itself from the ground, the graphics fizzling in and out of existence. The name however is what drew Kirito's attention. It now read "F 113N 31F C0MM ND3R"

"Wha… What the hell?" Kirito breathed out before he and Asuna slowly got into battle ready stances. The head jerkily looked up at them. The mouth opened.

" 1$%sInzsdl*ipk&xsm" The grating sound made them cover their ears. The two HP bars that had faded when they initially defeated it reappeared, as if they had retriggered the boss fight, however they stayed empty.

"Kirito, do you have-" Neku was cut off as the boss disappeared in a cloud of smoke and appeared before him. It was a testament to Neku's honed instincts during the beta that he was able to raise his sword in time to block the attack.

"GEH!" Neku spat as he slid back. The weight of the attack had been intense, forcing the air out of him. His HP had dropped an alarming amount as well, 25 percent had been shaved away instantly.

"There is no way we can beat this thing!" Neku called out, "We need to retreat NOW!" As if reacting to Neku's command, the door leading to the room slammed shut. Kirito sprinted to it and yanked at the handle. When nothing happened, he threw a martial arts skill at it, only to be stopped by a purple hexagon stating 'Immortal Object.'

"You gotta be fu-" the orange haired boy stated. That is how far he got until he was throwing himself forward, dodging under a savage swing from the corrupted enemy. He got up and immediately the enemy was on him again, slashing at him with single minded determination.

"Neku!" called Kirito as he ran around to flank the enemy, "Weak spot?"

"None!" Neku called out as he held up his blade and deflected another strike from the foe. "I can't see anything with Scan!"

"HAAAH!" the scream caused Neku to flick his eyes in Asuna's direction. Asuna's blade glowed, then Asuna travelled across the room in an instant with her sword skill and struck the boss. Her Chivalric Rapier pierced the enemy. While Shooting star was the weakest of all the charging rapier skills, Asuna's sword was one of a kind, it should have done enough damage to kill a near dead enemy. But the monster just jerked forward before slowly righting itself and turning to face the rapier user.

" čhdf%$*jsdi1" it garbled out before bringing up a fist and grabbing her blade. Asuna paled considerably and yanked at her sword, but the strength of the fallen elf was too high.

"Asuna!" screamed Kirito. It was his call that saved her. Whether she understood his message, or there was some implicit trust between them, Asuna immediately released her blade and ducked, allowing the enemy's blade to pass over her instead of through her. She sprinted away and only turned to face the boss after getting behind the two boys who had their blades raised. When it was apparent that the boss wasn't going to rush her, she opened her menu and brought out another rapier. It was of a much lower quality, but it was still better than nothing. The Fallen elf smirked then threw the rapier to the side before rushing Neku who met the charging elf head on.

"What… What are we going to do?" Asuna panted as she tried to catch her breath.

"Did your attack do any damage?" Kirito asked as he bit his lip.

"No," Asuna gave a harsh sigh, "I guess not, it has zero HP, Kirito, I can't damage something with no health."

The conversation was cut when Neku released a Horizontal Arc against the enemy. The sword passed through the elf, but it showed no reaction to the attack, and just raised his sword ready to strike. Kirito jumped in and intercepted the attack, allowing Neku to retreat and down a potion. Asuna was already moving, circling around toward where her rapier had been thrown, keeping an eye on the enemy in case it suddenly changed targets. However, the monster seemed focused on Neku. Kirito had engaged the opponent for around a minute until it lost interest and suddenly charged the headphones wearing boy once more, forcing Neku to fight once more. Neku was fatiguing quickly. The blows were heavy and fast, forcing Neku to dodge more often than he normally would, just to keep his HP higher than 50 percent. Asuna grabbed her rapier and swiftly re-equipped it before running back to Kirito watching Neku continually dodge the onslaught of attacks.

"Screw this!" growled Neku before raising his hand, "Burn!" Immediately the monster was engulfed in flames. The elf crumpled down, as if melting from the heat, but the name and the HP bars did not go away. With the time bought with his attack Neku yelled. "Kirito! Plan! Now!" Kirito skewed up in a scowl as he forced his brain into overdrive. Something seemed to click since he answered after a few seconds.

"Could be a barrier or shield type enemy, like the ones on the beta?" asked the black-haired beta tester.

"I didn't see any effect that indicated such a thing," said Neku as he eyed the opponent warily, "there was no flashing animation, but considering that this is way out of standard, it is possible."

"So? Asked Asuna warily, "is there something we can do?"

"Only thing I can think of," muttered Kirito as he got into a defensive stance, "our damage output needs to exceed a certain value, but it needs to be dealt in one attack, or multiple attacks simultaneously."

"This thing likes to attack me, so I will distract it." Neku said as he grit his teeth, "You two wait for an opening to strike. I will give you the chance, so make sure you two attack at the same time!" that was all Neku got to say as he was once again reengaged by the elf and had to focus on fighting. The pace of the battle increased, forcing Neku on being solely defensive, however his HP was dropping from every glancing blow he could not completely parry or dodge. It was a race against time with Neku's health meter being the timer. Finally, his gamble paid off, the elf went for a slash attack that had a long wind up. Neku immediately dropped his stance and tucked his blade close to his body, activating the sword skill Slant. The light blue colored blade launched upward and caught the opponent's blade and both combatants we pushed back slightly.

"ASUNA!" came Kirito's cry and the two raced in. Kirito's blade erupted into an angry red, signifying his intent on using Sharp Nail while Asuna's rapier was pulled back for Parallel Sting. Neku's eyes flashed and he held up his hand as the two other attacks approached.

"Burn!" Neku yelled as the two attacks struck home causing the figure to once again burst into flames. The combined attacks of three high-level players all hitting at the same time should have done an extraordinary amount of damage. They had been naïve. As the lights faded from the duo's blades, and Pyrokenisis went out, figure stood there, holding both blades in one hand and smiling a wide, sinister grin.

" k6&*4l$!" The monster screamed as it attacked. Kirito and Asuna had no chance to dodge. Both of them were still in their post-motion delay from using high-powered sword skills. One swipe from the monster's blade sent them flying across the room. Hp bars draining at an alarming rate but by some miracle did not reach zero. However, they were afflicted with Paralysis X, a paralysis effect of the tenth level. Neku in all of his beta testing days had never seen a paralysis effect go that high. There was nothing in his arsenal to heal that. He jumped back to put some distance between them. Just because they were paralyzed did not mean that they were going to die, as long as it wasn't burn, bleed, or poison, then HP would not be affected. All status effects would fade, given time, even at the tenth level. All he needed to do was survive this fight, defeat this abomination, and get the two, plus Kizmel out of here. His hopes, however, were dashed instantly as soon as the monster started to charge him again. It was faster than before. He brought up his blade in time to intercept the attack.

*Ping*

His sword, which had taken a few too many blows, snapped in two and Neku was sent flying into the cavern wall behind him. His vision blackened slightly at the impact, and in his peripheries, he saw his HP drop down to red. He tried to move, but as luck would have it, he too had been afflicted with paralysis. His sword, laying in two pieces a few feet away burst into blue shards.

"D…Damn it.." he muttered as the monster walked up to him.

"Ah, Ah, Ah, Cheaters never win."

A god-like white light came from above and slammed into the corrupted elf. It screamed as it was vaporized into blue shards. Neku could only stare in utter amazement as the thing that had haunted his existence for the last 30 minutes was destroyed in front of him.

"Dear me," the vaguely familiar voice stated, "I thought that he would be gracious with his loss, but I guess I must step in." Neku tried to angle his head to see who was talking.

"J-Joshua?" Neku asked hesitantly. The platinum-haired swordsman smirked when his name was called.

"Neku, see you are a bit worse for wear huh?" Joshua said with a flick of his hair, "No matter let's get you patched up." Without any further words he walked over to Neku's slumped form and held up a shining object in his hand, "Heal." The object shattered, and immediately Neku's health went back to full and all his status debuffs were eliminated.

"That was a healing crystal…" Neku asked as he slowly stood up, "where did you get something like that?" Joshua waved his questions away. Before pulling out two more and healing Kirito and Asuna. After examining the two unconscious players, he took a quick look at their elven companion before facing Neku once more.

"It seems these two will be fine, and will awaken shortly," Joshua said while rubbing his chin, "but I cannot say that I know much about your elf companion."

"Thanks…" Neku said before frowning, "but answer my questions, where did you get those crystals? How did you defeat that enemy? Who is CAT? Why do you know so much about this game?"

"So many questions and so little time," Joshua held up his hands in defeat. "Let me keep this conversation brief." At Neku's scowl, Joshua shrugged noncommittally, "Or I can tell you nothing if that is how you want it." Neku clicked his tongue in annoyance but stood down. Joshua smirked, but started to talk.

"To answer your question about the crystals. I need to go into a bit of background history. I will not waste your time on the small details, but I will tell you now that through some connections, I was one of the personal lab assistants of Kayaba Akihiko." Neku's eyes widened at the name, "If I may be so bold, I was his favorite assistant out of the bunch, and he gave me more opportunities that the others. I was invited to multiple meetings to sit in, that is how I know CAT personally by the way. In fact, Kayaba even let me play in the beta. While the other 1000 players gave valuable feedback, he enjoyed having information given to him directly from the horse's mouth. This allowed for faster updates, better and more accurate patches, and generally a more streamlined experience for everyone involved." Joshua's face suddenly became very bitter.

"When he was about to launch SAO, he urged me to play as well, securing a copy for me to use. He even told me that he would give me a special care package as a little boost. How stupid I was to have trusted that man." Joshua's fists clenched hard. "It was just after I learn that this was a death game. When the mirror appeared in my inventory some other items were included as well, the supposed 'care package'. Those crystals were in the care package, as well as note. 'Have fun surviving.' As you can probably guess, I wasn't too exhilarated to realize that I was screwed."

"What was everything that you got in that care package?" Neku asked as he raised an eyebrow.

"Crystals mostly, from healing, to antidote, to teleportation." Joshua stated with a shrug.

"Anything else?" Neku frowned.

"Yeah," Joshua said as he sighed, "I had one item called Boss Eliminator. The item description said that, except for floor bosses, it would be able to eliminate any monster. Unfortunately, that is how I defeated the thing you were fighting just now."

"Unfortunate," Neku clicked his tongue, "I would have traded anything for a few of those."

"Certainly," Joshua nodded, "would be a nice thing to keep in you back pocket. But not much we can do about it now."

"True," Neku said before looked away and scratching his head, "though I need to ask, why are you helping us? These items are for your survival, not ours."

"I was part of the beta, remember?" Joshua sighed as he shook his head, "Out of all the players, you held the most potential. If saving you gets us out of this game faster that is well worth a few crystals." A groan caught their attention as Kirito started to come to.

"Hey you ok?" Neku asked as he jogged over to check on him. "You really took a beating." Kirito slowly shook his head to rid himself of his dizziness.

"Yeah, I think 'a beating' is a bit of an understatement," Kirito said weakly, "But I have to hand it to you, you actually beat that thing after it took out me and Asuna, you're on another level." Neku rolled his eyes and jerked a thumb behind him.

"Take a better look moron," Neku stated with a bit of exasperation, "I am not the only one here." Kirito frowned and leaned over to look behind him.

"Ok… who am I missing here?" the black haired swordsman finally asked, "I don't see anyone."

"What are you talking about Joshua is right… Huh?" true to Kirito's words, the only people in the chamber were Neku, Kirito, Asuna, and Kizmel. The mysterious young man was nowhere to be seen. Neku blinked in surprise, "When did he…" Kirito frowned.

"Summarize what happened after the monster knocked me and Asuna out." Kirito demanded. Neku nodded and gave him a basic rundown of events as well as the conversation he had with Joshua afterword. Kirito listened with rapt attention until Neku finished. "I see, certainly a surprising twist of events, though I do have a few questions."

"And what would those be?" Neku asked

"You mean you didn't realize?" Kirito asked as he pointed at the doorway, "how did he get through the door?" Neku's eyes widened.

"I… I didn't ask him…" Neku slowly said, realization dawning.

"I can't blame you for that," Kirito nodded tiredly, "there were certainly other questions that were more pressing, but consider this, what if this Joshua guy is a GM? That would explain why he would have access to crystals, can delete monsters that ordinary players like us can't damage and open sealed doors. It would also explain my other question, how did Joshua even know we were here?"

"If only I was paying attention more…" Neku scowled.

"What's done is done," Kirito shook his head to abate Neku's worries, "all things considered, this came out pretty well for us. We are alive for one. In fact, the only thing we lost was your sword."

"Don't remind me," Neku sighed as he scratched his head in frustration. We are fighting the floor boss in less than 24 hours and I don't have a weapon."

"We'll see what we can do," Kirito said as he patted Neku on the back, "I think there was a sword in the optional items we get for completing this quest. They should be a bit better than what is sold on this floor. I still have a few of those plate from the boss drop on the 2nd floor. We could make it a +3."

"Thanks for the offer…" Neku nodded tiredly, "come on, let's get our party up and out of here." The two proceeded to wake up Asuna and Kizmel, collect the Jade Key was that sitting innocently on the ground, and exit. It was then Kizmel revealed that she had been ordered to bring the Key up to the next floor. They traveled through the forest once again and came upon the spirit tree that the elves used to teleport between the lower floors. After saying goodbye to both Asuna, who hugged Kizmel affectionately, and Kirito, who blushed from his hug, Kizmel came to offer her goodbye to the orange-haired swordsman. Neku, however, was never one for physical contact and tried to think of a way to get out of the seemingly imminent hug that Kizmel was going to provide. But Kizmel only giggled and held out her hand.

"Worry not Neku," the dark elf laughed, "I am aware of your… unwillingness for people invading your personal space. But if you wouldn't mind, a handshake will suffice." Neku relaxed and held out his hand. In retrospect, he should have predicted what happened next. With elite level strength that Neku could not hope to beat, Kizmel gripped Neku's hand and pulled him into an overly affectionate embrace. Neku froze up, not quite comprehending what he was dealing with before starting to struggle.

"Why you…" muttered Neku. But he was silenced when Kizmel dipped her head near his ear.

"Neku, please listen to my request," the elf whispered, "I do not know what happened down in the fallen elf base after we defeated its commander, but I sense that you and your friends are to encounter danger multiple times during your journey. Please, keep them safe." Neku could only blink in surprise.

"Ye-Yeah, I promise," he muttered..

"I will hold you to that." Kizmel said as she slowly broke their hug and smiled softly. Neku blinked before nodding. Kizmel's smile widened before turning to face both Asuna and Kirito, "I apologize for not being able to assist you in the Pillar of the Heavens like how we originally planned, but I thank you for your continued assistance for our quest. With a small wave, that Asuna returned enthusiastically, Kizmel stepped into the spirit tree, and with a flash, she was gone.

-§-

"I hope we get to see her again," said Asuna as they walked back to the Dark Elf basecamp.

"It certainly is a possibility, Kirito said as he nodded along, "but for now let's focus on getting this quest turned in. We need to get a new blade for Neku as well."

"Yeah sorry to hear that Neku. Asuna said with a sympathetic look, "it really is too bad about your blade." Neku sighed before looking down at the basic short sword he had on him.

"Let's just hope there is a better sword in the optional items for this quest, Neku stated with a sigh, "If not, I don't know if I am participating in the raid or not."

"That would definitely not be good…" Asuna winced, "you don't have any items in your inventory right?" Neku rolled his eyes, but to appease her opened his menu anyway.

"Asuna, I would think that if I had a back up weapon I would…" He trailed off however as his finger hovered over his folder created for new drops. There was an icon there indicating there was new loot. Frowning he opened the folder and his eyes widened. There sitting in his inventory beside other random garbage material, were two special items. One was a One-handed sword ominously named "Hollow Bone." The other, however garnered more attention, a simple document classified as "Secret Report 2" Immediately he brought out the parchment paper and unfurled it..

"Neku, what is that?" Kirito asked with a frown.

"This is Secret Report 2" Neku said as he waved them over, " I just found it in my inventory. It must have dropped from the Fallen Elf Commander." Both of his party member's eyes widened and they immediately checked their items that dropped from the fight, but judging from their slumped shoulders, they didn't get any interesting drops. Eventually the two walked over and began reading over his shoulder.

Secret Report 2:

 _I must detail the genius The_ _ **Producer**_ _has done with his_ _ **imprinting.**_ _He has infused his_ _ **imagination**_ _into the music producing the feeling_ _ **there is danger here**_ _. The system, however, cannot clearly interpret these warnings as it is only a machine and instead creates a dungeon of monstrous difficultly. Only the player with the 'Psych' skill,_ _ **the Winner**_ _, may traverse these areas with no detriments. That is because the item he holds, Cat's Headphones, are infused with the_ _ **Producer's imagination**_ _, and as such counters any negative effects the system places on him. I hope he continues to show me his potential._

"Well… that was interesting, but it certainly brings up more questions than answers," said Kirito as he crossed his arms.

"But this is about you, right Neku?" Asuna asked as she pointed at the paper, "You're, 'the Winner' aren't you? It even talks about the Psych skill." Neku shrugged.

"I have no idea," the headphone wearing teen said as he looked over the report once more, "Though that wasn't the only drop that I got." With a few more presses, the piece of paper was returned to his inventory and he drew out the one-handed sword. It was and eerie looking weapon. A crimson blade gleamed back at them. Serrated edges on both sides and a handle with a cross guard that swept downward.

"Its stats are good," mentioned Neku as he looked at it, "Its base stats are a bit worse than my Anneal blade +8."

"That's wonderful!" Asuna said as she clapped her hands.

"Anything else? Kirito asked, "Buffs? Special effects? Upgrade attempts?" Neku quickly browsed the screen.

"Let's see here," the orange haired boy examined the window, "there are no special buffs, but it does have a chance to inflict bleed to the opponent."

"HUUHH?!" Kirito choked out before slowly reaching out to the blade with quivering hands, "Neku… we're friends, right? How about passing that blade over to me and I can hand over my Anneal Blade +8, what do you say?" The glare Neku leveled at Kirito answered his question and Kirito just sulked.

"What's so good about bleed?" Asuna asked as she tilted her head to the side.

"There are three steady damage over time debuffs in SAO or at least the beta, poison, burn, and bleed." Neku stated, "Out of the three, bleed is the best, and the rarest debuff of the three. In the beta, poison could only work on organic enemies, like boars, cows, or even elves, things like plants, golems, or astral type monsters were not affected. Moreover, many enemies have resistances to poison, making it the least effective of all the DOT debuffs. Even we have countermeasures over poison." Neku motioned to his belt where a health potion and antidote potion hung. "This is counteracted by the fact the poison inflicts the most damage per second. Moving on, burn affects all monsters, but only applies a set amount of damage. While it is good early game when enemies have less HP, over time against stronger enemies it become the least viable DOT. Bleed is a mix between the two. While it deals a bit less damage over time than poison, it can affect any and all enemies. There are very few ways to counter, or cure bleed, at least what we could find in the beta."

"Wow… that might have been the most I have every heard you talk," said Asuna, causing Neku to instantly scowl. The girl let out a giggle, "I'm joking, calm down." She suddenly stopped and gave Neku a quick, but polite bow, "Thank you for teaching me." Neku blinked, surprised at Asuna's unexpected reaction. He reached up and scratched his head nervously, before remembering Kizmel's words. The more he helped Asuna learn, the better she could defend herself. He had promised after all. He gave a small smile.

"Yeah, no problem." Orange-haired swordsman said. Asuna grinned before running up to join Kirito who had been slowly walking ahead. Neku just sighed, smiled, and started to jog after them.

-§-

As it turned out, there was boss info regarding Nerius the Evil Treant the boss of the 3rd floor. Though, the information was as useless as telling a dehydrated man he should drink some water. The boss had a new poison move, and they were recommended to bring along antidote potions. But considering every raid member worth their salt, and even those that weren't, carried a supply of antidote potions anyway, the information did not help them much in any regard. Either way, the raid met up the next day at 9 AM and the boss was defeated at 1:12 PM.

"Still don't know how you got the LA bonus," stated Neku as he climbed the stairs to the next floor, "If only my sword didn't inflict bleed, I would have survived your attack and I would have gotten it instead."

"Stop complaining," Kirito said as he crossed his arms in frustration, "Did you see how many times your blade's effect actually proc'ed? That blade's insane."

"Proc'ed?" Asuna asked.

"Proc, or rather 'Programmed random occurrence.'" Neku explained, "Basically Kirito is raving about how many times my sword actually inflicted the debuff 'bleed' on the opponent. Anyways Kirito, it didn't happen that often, I only got it four times."

"Would you two quit arguing over the boss battle?" said Asuna as she listened to the two boys talk with gaming terms outside of her understanding. How about you tell me about the next floor?"

The two boys looked at one another then shrugged, "Well," said Kirito, "There really isn't much to talk about."

"It was nothing to write hope about, Neku nodded, "but if you are so curious…" Neku jogged up to the top of the long stairs and grabbed the door handle, "Why don't you see it for yourself?" He turned the knob and pushed. The bright sun illuminated their surroundings, and as a party, they stepped onto the fourth floor.

-§-

Well, here is the tenth chapter. I wanted to get this done for New year's day, but unfortunately, it did not work out like that. Either way, I am happy to finally get to the next floor. Out of all the progressive volumes out right now, the 4th floor's story is my favorite. I am excited to finally write about Neku and crew as they wander around the new environment.

The new blade of Neku's is a reference to the sticker you can obtain in TWEWY, Hollow leg.

Leave a review of things you liked or things you thought could have been done better. And as always, thanks for reading.


End file.
